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.

A Movie Night

The longest continually operating movie theater in Chicago is within walking distance from my house, but for some reason, I never when to see movies there. This finally changed last night when Igor, mom, and I went to see Babylon.

The movie is very long, and it’s great that the theater is so close to us, especially mom’s house. For the movie itself, I am glad I went, although Igor and I agreed that so it is not clear what’s all the drama about. I am sure it was done on purpose because the producers know very well what it should have looked like, but the purpose remains unclear to me :).

Again, the most important is that now I know the way to 400 Theater, and I will see more movies there. And another good thing is that with all of my mom’s “I don’t understand American English,” she understands good acting, so she actually liked it, even though it was three hours long!

That Is My Alma Mater. That WAS.

I am shocked by this news. I guess I should not be shocked because Boris told me multiple times about the situation at our university. The one that used to be THE University.

Hopefully, my non-Russian-speaking friends will use Google translate to read the article above in its entirety, but to give a quick summary, it tells about the hackathon, which was organized by Wagner with the goal of finding solutions for drones without GPS. The first-place winners are the students of Saint Petersburg State University, who previously graduated from one of the top specialized high schools (fortunately not my school, but that’s not a consolation).

And they are saying that it was fun to participate because it was an interesting problem to work on and whatever else…

Again, not like something unexpected, but truly disgusting.

Into The New Year

The last (long) weekend appeared to be remarkably productive, more than I could imagine. I had a to-do list so gigantic that I was sure I wouldn’t be able to complete more than two-thirds of it, and I ended up being done with almost everything. In fact, I have a good chance to cross off the remaining items before Friday :).

Most importantly, I talked to lots of people. Having several days in a row when I had time to talk, to email, and meet people, I seized this opportunity. And it feels amazingly good.

I remember how I was going to prioritize interactions with people last New Year, and then how all my plans were ruined together with so many other things and became so irrelevant that I didn’t want to recall them. I am not making any grand plans for 2023, and I am not putting together a list of New Year’s resolutions. There were things that I wanted to complete during the last weekend, and I did. Some of them could be considered New Year resolutions, but overall I’d say: I know what the right things to do are now, next month, and next year, and always, And I am trying to do as much as I can, every day and every week, and I keep to-do lists and roll them over.

I feel good about the new year. I feel angry and productive – that’s my new thing, my new state of mind and soul, which I acquired in 2022: angry and productive. And it really helps:)

Physical Therapy

Another December achievement was that I finally found a physical therapist I like, and also very close to my house, just ten minutes walking distance. That was another item on my list that I could not complete for a while, and possibly if my back problems won’t exacerbate during the holiday, I might never start looking seriously and could keep living with multiple minor issues.

But now, finally and fortunately – I have a specialist whom I trust and who is easy to reach, and that’s one of these small pieces of my everyday life puzzle, which is finally in place :).

And yes, he did some magic with my back, and things became better instantaneously. Now I can’t believe that just three weeks ago, I worried that all my troubles had started over again.

Light Fixtures Fixing

One of my significant accomplishments in December was fixing all the light fixtures and ceiling fans that didn’t work. I tried to approach this problem a couple of months after I moved in. Still, I had a hard time finding an electrician, and when I finally found one, he fixed a couple of things, and we agreed on what was next, a supply chain crisis broke, and they never got the ordered part, and I think they ended up going out of business. And after that, I never had time to start searching again.

I resumed my search when two more kitchen light fixtures died, including the one over the sink. I went to the NextDoor with one more cry for an electrician, got several recommendations, and started contacting them one by one, honestly trying to support the local business. At this point, I didn’t hold a hope somebody would be able to fix the fans for which there were no remotes, no instructions, and models unknown. I wanted to fix the lights in the kitchen.
After more than a week and several unsuccessful attempts (I called, texted, and emailed, people either would not respond or responded they were not available at the times which worked for me, or they would even come but not be able to fix things) I gave up and messaged a relatively big company which was also mentioned in response to my post on NextDoor.

And they were the best! They called me back right away and scheduled the evaluation service call promptly. During this first service call, they actually fixed several things right away, and we agreed on the next steps, which were also scheduled within two weeks. No supply chain crisis, no problem. Comparing what was promised to me in the summer of 2021 and what was done now, and prices, I’d say there was no significant difference. Oh, and when I found that one thing stopped working a day later, they came to fix it right away, and then it was even better. So the moral of the story: sometimes shopping local is not the best option.

My First New Year’s Eve

I forgot to reblog this post on January 1< doing it now.

Hettie D.'s avatarHettie's Reflections

Since Christmas was forbidden in the Soviet Union and later partially rehabilitated in the form of New Year’s celebration, I can’t tell, “it was my first Christmas. ” Instead, it was “my first New Year,” December 31, 1963. The New Year was especially a big deal in our family because Aunt Kima’s birthday was on January 1.

I cherish these pictures because they are atypically live for that period, and none of them are staged photos. I believe my Mom never printed the pictures from that roll, which did not include me, so until we scanned the film, I didn’t know what a treasure I have in my possession.

I have some memories from that day, in part because Mom showed me these pictures often.

I just started walking and preferred to stay close to the walls:)

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Biking?

Also, it suddenly became unseasonably warm after snow and extremely cold temperatures, and all the snow was gone in just two days. I biked for the store for my New Year grocery shopping, and today, on the first day of the New Year, I took a relatively long bike ride along the Lakefront!

New Year

Like last year (and actually a year before and a year before that), Igor and mom came to my place to celebrate the New Year “at Saint Petersburg time. All the previous years it was not a big deal, and actually, this year it was not a big deal either, but having the situation at the front, I could not make myself display any cheer.

Mom got upset (although she didn’t complain), but everything was civil. I made dinner – nothing fancy, but things both mom and Igor like – borsch, meatloaf, roasted and mashed potatoes. I also baked pumpkin muffins and made tiramisu.

Mom kept saying she always had to celebrate the “Russian” new year alone, which is not true. Last year, we had to get together a little later because I was working, but that was an exception, and we still got together. We watched “The mask ball night;” this time, mom could hear everything, and hopefully, she will remember that we watched it. Then Igor took her home and later came back so that we could go see the New Year fireworks.

There were no Grant Park fireworks this year, so we went to Oak Street beach to watch the Navy Pier fireworks. The weather was perfect, and forecasted rain never materialized, and the air was clear.

The fireworks themselves were much more fun than last year, so I guess the only thing I want now is to have the same quality public fireworks :).

Another good thing was that the train back came right away, so it was nothing like last year, although the number of smokers in the cars was above average. And another interesting thing is that there were a lot of people at each stop, exiting and entering the train, and I kept wondering where they were going 🙂

And Let This Stay Here As Well

Also, I wanted to embed Putin’s address to the Russian people just so that it would sit here and be a reminder, but I didn’t come right away with any video with English subtitles, so I am leaving this link here.

One more thing I want next year to happen: I want this one to be the last Putin New Year address!!!

…and also, I want to be able to have the tag “ukraine” without the tag “war”.

Let 2023 be a year of Victory for Ukraine!