I know everybody saw it already, at least those who care. But I wanted to make sure that the full video stays here. The most important words from this speech – this is not charity. He said – it’s an investment, but I would make a stronger statement: this is not an investment in the future, it is today’s defense of democracy in the whole world. And for that, the world should be forever thankful for Ukraine.
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.
Santa Departed For His Jorney
Weekend Highlights
It’s already Wednesday evening, and I still didn’t blog about our weekend with Anna’s family. We all had a great time, but somehow I find it difficult to put it in words – what exactly was so good? I had many worries that somebody might get sick, including me, or something else won’t work, but everything worked perfectly.
Maybe not “perfectly,” because the weather was not cooperating, and Kira didn’t get enough sleep the first night, but still, it’s amazing how many boxes we checked!
Still, the best part was having all these tiny precious moments. Kira said: Baba’s house is so beautiful! – when she saw all the Christmas lights I left on. Nadia loved the kitty purse I bought for her in Helsinki. Both girls marched to the kitchen after they woke up and hung out with me, letting the parents have some sleep. Nadia said to me while we were in Ryan Educational Center at the Art Institute: Baba, please don’t help me; I want to be challenged.
Here is a list of all the Christmas activities from the past weekend:
- Merry Merry Chicago concert on Friday night
- Having people over on Saturday mornings
- Going to the Steadfast Tint Soldier at the Lookingglass theatre (a beautiful show, but for a little bit older children or adults)
- Having late lunch/early dinner with Vlad
The First Christmas Concert
I got tickets for the “Merry Chicago” concert in the CSO for Nadia and me on December 16. It was a little bit of a stretch because they could not leave until Nadia’s school was over, but it ended up being not a little bit but a lot of a stretch. To be precise, Nadia was dropped off in front of the CSO a minute before the concert. But we were not late, and we had terrific seats in the second row on the aisle.
It’s hard to believe, but Nadia sat through the whole 1 hour 50 min concert completely focused on the music! Even during the intermission, after we walked around for a little while, she insisted on returning to our seats and anticipated the concert’s second part.
And nowadays, the Christmas concert is very different from when my kids were kids – there is no story, no dances, so it is pretty much music all the time – shorter pieces, for sure, but still!
In Solidarity With Ukraine
Christmas Rush, As Usual
The past week was another week of extreme sleep deprivation, packing and mailing cookies, writing postcards, and figuring out and ordering the remaining presents.
In addition, there was a holiday party in the youth shelter on Tuesday, a party at Igor’s office on Wednesday (I went to see his workplace), and a VIP reception at the Chicago Architectural Center on Thursday!
The weekend was “Christmas in Chicago” for Anna and her family. With infections rising in Illinois and worldwide, I worried till the last moment that something might not work out, but nobody got sick, and we had a fantastic weekend! Although we had to skip some of the things we had planned due to the extremely cold weather, most of our plans worked, sometimes better than expected. More to follow.
My talks recordings are live
September conferences recordings
The recordings from Uptime 2022 and PG Conf NY 2022 are live; many thanks to the conference organizers and volunteers!!!
Now, two more versions of my NORM-GEN talk are available:
Uptime here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-h690cqXvo
and PG Conf NYC 2022
Our Magical City
When I see Chicago decorated with holiday lights, the only thing I can say is, “What a beautiful city we live in!”
Several years ago, at one of the Caroling at the Clod Gate concerts, I heard somebody near me say this. And I remember I felt I could relate: you come to Millennium Park, look around, and see this beauty as if for the first time. And you are breathless!
Each time I come to the Chicago Architectural Center, I fee the same way! I want to repeat it over and over: what
Multilingual…
There is one very nice Polish cleaning lady in our office. I run into her each time I stay later than 5 PM. She speaks very little English, and she was excited to learn that I speak Russian and understand some Polish. She keeps telling me that she watches a lot of movies on YouTube which are dubbed in Russian and that she can understand it decently, even when she can’t speak Russian so well.
Picture the situation when you have no idea from which of three languages the next world is coming, and add to this mix Ukrainian, which I do not know at all. (Sometimes, Ala uses Ukrainian words thinking that they are Russian.)
I think that in order to fully appreciate how our conversations sound, one should know at least a little bit of all three languages. Today, to my remarks that people in the Polish communities often start talking Polish to me because of the way I look, she replied enthusiastically something about “European uroda” 😀
Keep Ukraine Moving
Watch their stories here.
Hettie's Reflections 