Author: Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

Mid-Week

Somehow, it is difficult to plan for anything after my return from Prague. Logically, I understand that there should not be any life-threatening with Anna, and if I can plan my trip to Prague, I can plan things after. But I am stuck on uncertainty. Also, there will be not even a day of vacation between now and the end of the year (excluding the state holidays), still I feel that I am going to be out of the office to such an extent that I can’t take any time of fin January.

***

On Tuesday, I was at the Beetlejuice show with my neighbor. No, I did not see a movie. Yes, I knew what it was going to be about. And I was willing to give it a try. And I didn’t like it:). And that’s fine, but … there were three young women behind us (no, not teens!). And they were screaming so loud!!!! All the time! My Apple Watch started panicking and showed me dangerous decibel levels,l so each time they started to scream, I had to cover my ears! My neighbor said that the woman behind her was kicking her chair from the back all the time!

***

I was barely home this week, and it’s already late and I didn’t write three important emails I was supposed to write last weekend.

Our Small But Important Victory

Not sure whether this Tribune article is visible to non-subscribers, so copying it here:

Aldermen move to establish quiet zone around downtown abortion clinic
By A.D. Quig
Chicago Tribune
•
Published: Nov 13, 2023 at 3:47 pm

Following anti-abortion protests and alleged “attempts to harass and intimidate women seeking health care services” at a downtown abortion clinic, aldermen moved Monday to create a new “noise sensitive zone” in the streets surrounding the facility.

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted to bar protesters from using a bullhorn, loudspeaker or hitting a drum or other object “to produce a sharp percussive noise so as to interfere with the functions” of Family Planning Associates clinic.

Two aldermen voted against the proposal, citing concerns about protesters’ rights and how officials would decide whether protests crossed a line.

The ordinance from Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, follows what he said were multiple noise complaints about loud and disruptive anti-abortion protesters at the clinic, including from nearby residents as well as FPA clinical staff. The clinic offers abortion care and other gynecological services.

Continue reading “Our Small But Important Victory” →

Cards And Cookies

It’s that time of the year again!

Do you want a Christmas card from me? Please let me know!

Do you want a box of my cookies? – Let me know!

Do you live in Chicagoland and want to bake and decorate with me? I will have an Open Cookie House On December 9 and 17 – please come!

You do not have to send me a card or cookies as a reciprocation unless you want!

I am ready to share the joy of the season:)

A Week In Review

Once again, way too many things going on, and oftentimes, no time for a short reply to somebody’s email…

This post is a random collection of small things that happened last week; too small for separate blogs but still worth mentioning for this reason or the other…

  • The first time since I owned AirTags, I used it to find a missing object – the house keys, which fell out of my pocket when I hurried up to cross Sheridan before the light turned red. I only noticed it when I was approaching my home, but the FInd Me app showed a bold blue arrow leading to the place where I dropped them, and I quickly returned and found them.
  • Making dinner in the Youth shelter. I asked J. whether he was OK with peeling potatoes. He: I love peeling potatoes! I do it every Thanksgiving at home. I mean, I did it before I was kicked out…
  • Another exchange in the shelter. S.: I hate Florida! That’s where I was called n*** for the first time.
  • I remember when I made pumpkin pie for the first time, I used milk instead of the heavy cream and declared that “it turned just fine.” On Saturday, I made it with heavy cream. What can I say?!… the same as with Georgian Apple Cake – you can’t cheat when baking! If it’s heavy cream, then heavy cream it is! Makes a world of difference!
  • I took two pairs of boots for repair instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. Aside from the fact that I really liked one of these two pairs, my primary diver was a desire to minimize waste, so I am quite proud of myself!
  • I bought all my Secret Santa presents.
  • We made progress with the Pg Conf EU slides, so I almost stopped panicking.
  • I finally scheduled a plumber and had four annoying things fixed. All four were in my small shower, and it would take me several hours to fix them (although, technically speaking, I could fix them all). That’s something that was totally worth delegating!
  • The weather is so gorgeous, I do not know whom I should thank for it!

Code2College

I mentioned briefly my “other volunteering,” and now I want to tell a little bit more about it. I can’t say I was skeptical, but I was cautious and wanted to wait and see how it would work out. Same as with OMD, the idea of Code2College is great:

Historically underestimated students – Black, Latine, low-SES and girls – have faced structural & economic barriers to entry into STEM majors and careers for generations. The STEM opportunity gap doesn’t have to exist and Code2College is on a mission to decimate it.

Code2College

In practice, there was a lot of havoc at the start of the school year because the number of students who applied and were accepted into the program increased ten times in comparison with the previous school year, and the organizers had a hard time matching mentees and mentors.

I was matched really late, and it ended up that the person with whom I was matched wanted to do another program. Then, when I thought that I was just not doing anything this year, I was matched with another high school student. She started our first zoom conversation admitting that she was not interested in STEM, but she wanted to go to college, and one more time, I thought that that was a bad idea to try to volunteer in this program, but finally, everything got sorted out.

I am really happy with my mentee; she knows what she wants to achieve, and besides her saying otherwise, she is very organized. I believe I know what one should and should not expect from a high school freshman, and the fact that she always returns my emails and texts and is always on time is remarkable!

I had some doubts about on-line mentoring (she lives in Texas), but now it started looking like this should work out!

The Daughter Of The Regiment

Did you ever hear about Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment opera? If you did’ good for you, but I only learned about this opera when I saw it in the Lyric Opera calendar. I have to admit that my knowledge of the operas was naturally limited to Russian operas and a relatively small number of “all others,” while I was growing up. That’s not an excuse for not exploring what else is out there, but it is what it is.

I had so much fun! I am thinking about last night and smiling. I copied all the video clips I found on the Lyric Opera website because if I just post the links, they will be gone by the end of the season. Just play the clips, and you’ll see for yourself how awesome it was! The only other thing I wish they would have would be a picture of the last scene with a tank breaking into the Marquise’s castle:).

I love both leads: Lisette Oropesa as Marie and Lawrence Brownlee as Tonio. Both have unimaginably beautiful voices and brilliant acting. I almost want to go one more time :).

Assassins At Theo

The week is almost over, but it feels like it was just yesterday: I went to Theo to see a performance of Assassins with my long-time friend who is very much into musical theater.

That was a perfect outing for us! The first time I saw a show at Theo, I loved it but realized I wanted to be at the table. Then, I subscribed for a table sitting, and it was awesome. This time, I added a ticket for my friend and dinner for both of us. I didn’t want to add a dinner just of myself, and I was not sure whether I wanted to spend an extra hour and a half in the theater before the performance. With my friend, however, everything was just perfect!

We both liked the food, and we had enough time for a long conversation, and she liked the show, and she liked the whole cabaret idea (and I liked it, too!).

Today, I was finally able to find a show clip, which I am happy to post.

And here is more reading about the musical. It is running for five more weeks! (And I just can’t believe I am so fortunate to have several amazing theaters so close to home)

Happiness

I am still thinking about feeling happy. The book “Happiness Falls” gave an extra boost to these thoughts, but regardless of the book, I think about it quite often.

Today, I was working on a problem I’ve been working on for the past several days (whenever I was not involved in putting up fires). At some point, I moved my gaze away from the screen, looked in the direction of the window, and thought: how lucky I am! How fortunate I am! I know it seems like an improbable thought in the middle of an intense workday, but the feeling was very pronounced. I am sitting at my desk in a beautiful office, surrounded by smart people, doing the job I passionately love, making good money, and doing tons of other things I enjoy doing. Even with Anna’s knee injury and my mom’s ongoing situation, nobody has any life-threatening diseases.

I don’t know whom to thank, but I do not think I will ever take everything I have for granted. Feeling grateful makes me an even happier person. Also, it’s a constant reminder about how many people are less fortunate than I am. 

I had a thought recently. I know that there are people who want homeless persons “out of sight – out of mind.” They do not want to be disturbed by unpleasant pictures, and I sort of understand what’s going on in their minds. I thought there were even more disparities one hundred and fifty years ago. And I am wondering, how did rich people feel walking down State Street and seeing all these disparities worse than nowadays? How could they be happy?…

From Time Magazine: Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight

(Copying the text for those who do not have access to the site)

‘Nobody Believes in Our Victory Like I Do.’ Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight
BY SIMON SHUSTER/KYIV

Volodymyr Zelensky was running late.

The invitation to his speech at the National Archives in Washington had gone out to several hundred guests, including congressional leaders and top officials from the Biden Administration. Billed as the main event of his visit in late September, it would give him a chance to inspire U.S. support against Russia with the kind of oratory the world has come to expect from Ukraine’s wartime President. It did not go as planned.

That afternoon, Zelensky’s meetings at the White House and the Pentagon delayed him by more than an hour, and when he finally arrived to begin his speech at 6:41 p.m., he looked distant and agitated. He relied on his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, to carry his message of resilience on the stage beside him, while his own delivery felt stilted, as though he wanted to get it over with. At one point, while handing out medals after the speech, he urged the organizer to hurry things along.

The reason, he later said, was the exhaustion he felt that night, not only from the demands of leadership during the war but also the persistent need to convince his allies that, with their help, Ukraine can win. “Nobody believes in our victory like I do. Nobody,” Zelensky told TIME in an interview after his trip. Instilling that belief in his allies, he said, “takes all your power, your energy. You understand? It takes so much of everything.”

It is only getting harder. Twenty months into the war, about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory remains under Russian occupation. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, and Zelensky can feel during his travels that global interest in the war has slackened. So has the level of international support. “The scariest thing is that part of the world got used to the war in Ukraine,” he says. “Exhaustion with the war rolls along like a wave. You see it in the United States, in Europe. And we see that as soon as they start to get a little tired, it becomes like a show to them: ‘I can’t watch this rerun for the 10th time.’”

Continue reading “From Time Magazine: Inside Volodymyr Zelensky’s Struggle to Keep Ukraine in the Fight” →

CSO For Kids

One one-time participation in the discussion of the CSO youth programs and my readiness to be one of the CSO for Kids ambassadors keeps getting me unexpected benefits.

I had tickets for the “bigger kids concert” for last Saturday’s matinee, and about ten days before that, I received an invitation for the exclusive behind-the-scene tours, for which I happily signed us both. Since Anna is not exactly in a position to travel, on Friday, I took Haiawata to Milwaukee; Anna dropped Nadia off at the train station, and we got on the same train back to Chicago (as usual, the conductor said: hope to see you again soon! and I replied: you’ll see me very soon!

Saturday was the CSO day. We had this amazing backstage tour an hour before the concert:

We all went on stage!
A view form the stage
Continue reading “CSO For Kids” →