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.

Milwaukee

Boris and I went to Milwaukee today to visit the girls. We didn’t plan it originally, but Anna had a very bad knee injury, and Boris wanted to go to cheer her up (not like I didn’t want to, but I have more options to visit). I do not want to go into Anna’s medical details here, but the last three weeks were not easy. Anna told me earlier that Nadia and Kira were very helpful, and today, I got a chance to see for myself.

I was astonished by the changes in both girls since I last saw them a month ago. It felt like they became two years older in all imaginable ways. Nadia has her own bus pass and her own library card, which she carries in her wallet. She showed me a page-long essay she wrote and her geometry assignment. Kira’s speech made a huge leap. Both Nadia and Kira are very helpful at home. Kira can load and unload a dishwasher, and while I was there, she spent at least twenty minutes doing the dishes, rinsing the plates from the traces of food, and loading the dishwasher.

We went to IKEA together (Anna used a scooter inside the store), and then we (mostly Boris and Nadia) assembled a gigantic Kollax section.

A couple of pictures from today:

Walking to the Union Station. I rarely visit this pat of the Loop these days, and I forgot how stunningly beautiful this bridge is!
Approaching Milwaukee

In The Loop Yesterday

There were Palestinian rallies in the Loop for several days. Yesterday, Boris and I ran into a bigger rally on Michigan Avenue when we went to see the Camille Claudel exhibit at the Art Institute. I already read in the news about how violent the protesters have been, including attacking the City Council members, and that’s how yesterday’s rally felt. And it was way bigger than the biggest Ukrainian rally we ever had in Chicago.

The Tribune front page article talks about Palestinian and Muslim people in general feeling frightened and unsafe these days, especially with several hate crimes, and they compare their feelings with how they felt after 9/11. I think there is a big difference – I remember the feelings in society after 9/11. I understand that Palestinian Americans want to be safe, but that was not the narrative of yesterday’s rallies and all the rallies of the past week. The signs people carried were not about their personal safety. And not even about humanitarian aid to Gaza. And their chants were not about their safety.

Unfortunately, the ideology can’t be destroyed with shelling or any other means of brutal force. Same as it was not the German surrender that put an end to fascism destroying the terrorists won’t put an end to the terrorist ideology.

Long Bike Ride

Boris is in town. This was going to be a short visit, and I was busier than I would like to be when he was in town, but one thing we really wanted to do, and we did, was a long bike ride. Not the early morning biking, but midday biking on a beautiful sunny autumn day.

Continue reading “Long Bike Ride” →

The Floral Workshop

Yesterday, we had a “Women’s Night Out” in our firm: we had a floral workshop with Flowers for Dreams at the Riverfront Terrace of Beatnik on the River. I thought from the start that this would be a great activity, and it was even better than I thought! Also, I didn’t like Beatnik that much before because they always have very loud music, but when you are down in the Terrace, you do not hear the music from the street level, and being right there by the water feels like magic!

Continue reading “The Floral Workshop” →

***

Mom’s SSI application was denied again. I can’t even say I feel bad about it because, to be honest, we can survive without it. The lady who worked with me on the phone two weeks ago and with whom I talked today was a real angel. She made me feel like she was really trying to do the best for me, and she repeated multiple times that she completely understood our situation, but the rules are what they are. And again, I understand that it’s fair. I was very nervous about this whole thing for the past two weeks, and now life will just go on. She said we would be able to apply again in three years (a little bit less, but whatever), and that is before my retirement, so hopefully, we can last for that long.

I will need to figure out whether we can still apply for subsidized housing, and after January 1, she can apply for Medicare, but for now, I am going to take a break from all of these activities. My time is more important, and when it is wasted, it is wasted.

Unrelated, but also happened today: I went to see an eye doctor about my double vision. Not like I wanted, but when I asked for new prizm glasses in summer, an optometrist told me that he wanted me to check with a specialist whether anything else could be done. Nobody suggested anything radical to me for the past twenty years, but I decided to give it a shot. Another two and a half hours are wasted, and the result is the same: nothing that we can do for you. Just put a patch over your left eye when you go to the movies. Oh, well.

Fall

We’ve had a little bit of warmer weather recently, and on Tuesday, I moved my workday to an even earlier start than usual and came back home to take a bike ride. I was less of a traffic jam than I was afraid it could be, and it was really warm and calm – a perfect fall afternoon!

“In The Rear View” Documentary

Chicago International Film Festival is in progress, and I had absolutely no time to see anything. Except for when I saw that documentary in the list of participating films, I knew I would find a non-existent time.

It was not even in the Siskel Center, but fortunately, on my way from work to home (I had to leave about an hour earlier to make it, but there were only two screenings of this film!).

It’s an unimaginably difficult film to watch. Even though there is no fighting, no shooting, no explosions, and even though we’ve seen footage of buildings damaged by Russian shells, you feel it differently watching from inside an evacuation minibus. Most of the people whom Maciek was evacuating were Russian speakers, and it was especially horrible to hear them referring to the “Russian tanks” as enemy tanks. About twenty minutes into the documentary, I started to cross my heart and didn’t stop till the end.

Maciek Hamela was there! The funniest thing is that he entered the building right before me, and like I, he was a little bit uncertain about where theater 13 was, where the screening was about to take place. And I heard him talking in Polish on the phone, and I thought that he might be going to the same screening, but I could never imagine it was a filmmaker!
He talked a little bit before the screening and after (he answered many of the same questions in the interview below), and then he answered questions from the audience. And then people started to thank him and started to come down and hug him, and then I left.
May those who brought this war to the land of Ukraine burn in hell!

Official trailer

An interview with Maciek Hamela:

Lake Michigan Today

OHC 2023

The day started with the pouring rain, and I was unsure whether it was still a good idea to go with our original plans for the OHC Day. Igor said he would go with me or without:), and I decided to go, hoping for the rain to stop later in the day. It eventually stopped, and the trip “to the other side of the world” was totally worth it.

As usual, I hope to tell more about what I saw a little bit later, but judging by my recent level of busyness, it is not very likely to happen, so I will at least mention the highlights of the day.

First and foremost – Beverly Hills is so beautiful! Regardless of the OHC sites being open to public, it was such a pleasure to walk the streets, to see houses and trees, and just take in the spirit of the place.

Continue reading “OHC 2023” →

A Wonderful World Musical

This is a new musical about the life and career of Louis Armstrong, and I went to see it on Friday. That was one of the conflicts my neighbor and I an into because of having too many subscriptions :). Two long shows in two consecutive days is not a great idea, especially approaching the end of a busy week.

I really liked the singers, and the dances, and everything was spectacular, but I felt less impressed than the night before at Joffrey.

All pictures are from the playbill.