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.

In Helsinki – Finally!

We made it! Everybody had their passports, the plane was on time, the luggage was not lost, and Anna’s family was settled in their AirB&B.

Anna is going to use my old bike, and Nadia got a new one; both of them will be donated after this trip, but they will serve us well for now.:)

My Saturday Bike Ride

There was a severe overnight thunderstorm all night Friday to Saturday, and when I went for my morning bike ride, I found all a tree blocking my way on the Laekfrom trail – the first time since I moved to Rogers Park!

There was no rain in the morning but it looked like the sky was still in the stormy mood:

There was a sunny day after that, but I was busy getting ready for our trip!

That Why I Like It Here!

Art Institute With ODS

Last Thursday, I took a group of youth from the Open Door Shelter to the Art Institute. We used to go there on Thursday nights relatively regularly, but it didn’t happen for a while, and I was very excited to resume this activity.

Yes, as usual, they were delayed to the point that we only had an hour and fifteen minutes left for the museum, and yes, as usual, people got lost on the way (this time, things were complicated by the fact that one person from our group had a double stroller, which meant that we had to search for elevators, which is not an easy task, especially in the older part of the museum.

But with all that being said, and with the fact that nobody except for our volunteer coordinator had been to the Art Institute before, it was a smashing success. At least, that’s what I think. I enjoyed every minute of this outing. Each time I take a group from the shelter to the museum, they surprise me with how they interpret art, how attentive they are to details, and how the art makes them feel. One young man answering my questions about whether he saw that it’s spring in the picture answered with a three-minute monologue telling me about all the things he saw (and I didn’t!) about this landscape. I was listening with my jar dropped!

Also, all of them realized how gigantic the place was and how many things one could see, and everybody resented coming so late. I was glad that I had a chance to spend some “one-on-one” time with three people from the group and listen to their perspectives. One of them replied to my question whether did she know who Van Gough was, replied: I received a very good education! My mother is an artist. But honestly, it didn’t matter: some of them didn’t hear Van Gough’s name before, some knew his works, but no matter what, their insights were amazing.

I hope we can go one more time when I am back form Finland!

War And Punishment

Yesterday, I listened to Michail Zygar interview on WEZ, where he talked about his new book War and Punishment. OMG, he is brilliant!!! Unfortunately, they do not have this interview as a separate episode on their website, so I can’t embed it here, but it was so good! So to the point!

And it turned out that although the book is currently unavailable on Kindle and is back ordered as a hardcover, it is available as an audiobook! I am going to start listening right away!

Books

Once again, I didn’t blog about the books I read during the past month, so it’s the long list again!

Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist

What an amazing book! What an amazing woman! Sure, I knew the name of Madame Restell before, and I would see her mentioned in many historical accounts and petty much in any book or article about abortion rights. Still, this book was an eye-opener.
I saw this book in the list of library recommendations for March – Women’s History Month. And I thought how strange it was that even when you are very much pro-choice, you still feel awkward calling an infamous abortionist “an outstanding woman.” The truth is, though, that Madame Restell was an outstanding woman indeed.
I find it remarkable that she was able to build her family wealth by providing much-needed services (doing something that she was really good in). She had very strong opinions and never tried to hide them. She knew that she was doing the right thing for people who sought her services and lived in accordance with her principles, so she felt like a very “complete” person. It would be a big achievement even nowadays to make a good life doing what you believe in and what you are good at.
Lots of details about her life make me think about her as a twenty-first-century woman rather than a ninetieth century. She was a primary breadwinner for her family (and still stayed married!). She dressed in the latest fashions when she was “an old woman” by mid-nineteenth-century standards. She accepted challenges. She was herself, no matter what the circumstances were. And for that, she should be remembered.

Poverty. By America

A very good book, but as it often happens, the anticipations were too high. I mean, it’s always refreshing to hear a simple fact that we should focus on eradicating poverty rather than on helping poor people to overcome poverty. What I would like to see thee would be more precise references to the research which analyzes the impact of minimal basic income, links between single motherhood and income, and alike.

The Journal of the Plague Year

Not so well know book by Daniel Defoe, which, same as Robinson Crusoe, is a fictional diary of a person leaving through the Great Plaue of London 1665. Obviously, it’s very interesting to compare “now” and “then” pandemics, actions of authorities and ordinary people behavior.

Bois Akunin’s Yama

Huge disappointment a=on all accounts.

Akunin’s Outstanding People of Ancient Rus

As expected – very “unpolished” facts about the early years of Russian history.

:)

My Updates

We are leaving for Finland – finally for an actual vacation, which means, I am working like crazy to complete a couple of important projects before I leave. Otherwise, these projects won’t materialize at all. This leaves zero room for anything else during work hours, including book writing, professional blogs and other educational materials, PUG activities, and PG Day Chicago ongoing things, and I am not even mentioning my own conference submissions and life in general.

Nothing is packed for the trip; my emails remain unanswered for days and weeks, but I go for bike rides every morning and go to the beach at least three times a week. I guess, my priorities are clear!

Mom’s Updates

Last Friday, I tried to initiate two processes: issuing Mom’s US passport and updating her Social Security information so that she could receive a new card and apply for benefits. I knew that we needed to present the original of her Citizenship certificate. Still, unfortunately, I completely forgot that when you apply for a US passport for the first time, you must mail the original certificate.

So, although the SS office has the information that mom’s status changed, they can’t update the documentation before her certificate is returned. On the one hand, I regret that I didn’t think about it in advance. On the other hand, last Friday afternoon was the only time I could address some of these urgent things, and I took the last slot for the passport appointment. If I would skip the passport, the next time I could take my mom there would be in mid-August, and her desire to be able to travel is strong, although entirely irrational. So I didn’t have much choice.

Also, I am not sure I would have time to go to the next round of appointments with her if we had the SS information updates. So let’s say that everything happens for a reason.

The Russian bank saga continues. After I yelled at my mom that she had to call the Russian bank (and Boris transferred money to her phone), she pulled herself together and did call (although she called from Skype, thereby, she could not be identified by the phone number). They took down her information, but she didn’t know her secret word, and they told her she needed to come in person (!!!).

Fortunately, a good friend of mine has the authorization to perform everything that can be done with Mom’s accounts and receive her new bank cards. She went to the bank branch today, but the results were mixed. Although it is clear that there were no fraudulent actions, they refused to unblock this card and insisted it has to be reissued. The online access is still blocked even though they said they unblocked it.

My friend is going to the bank branch again tomorrow, so help her God!

Lena In Chicago

My friend Lena, who used to live in Palatine, and now lives in Ann Arbor, is in Chicago again!

She is my only friend who moved away a while ago, but still,l we not only keep in touch but visit each other regularly. Moreover, through the years, we came up with the annual visit schedule: she visits me for Christmas cookies baking, for the Chicago Botanic Garden Orchid Show in spring, and for one summer weekend, and I visit her at the end of summer.

This time, in spite of completely unpredictable weather, we had an almost perfect weekend. The only item on our agenda that we didn’t check was a Millennium Park concert, and that’s because of the rain – again! Actually, I am sort of proud of us because we waited for the first rain to stop, still went to the Riverwalk, had a nice dinner facing the Chicago River, and then looked at the forecast and saw that the rain was about to start again, and when back home instead of tempting our good fortune :).

We visited the Art Institute, saw the Van Gough exhibit and Japanese drawings, had lunch there, went to the Lurie Garden, then – to the Field Museum for the Kings of Europe exhibit and 3D dinosaurs movies, and then to the beat the rain and still made it to the Riverwalk 🙂

Today, we went for an early morning bike ride, then, after breakfast, went to the Glenwood market and then – to the beach.

Finally, it’s that time of summer when the lake is warm, even in the morning. I think it was the first time this summer that I could lay on the sand and do nothing for an hour!

(I am still three chapters behind in the book, and still have piles of work, but I am glad I am not giving up on my summer :))