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.

Cultural Activities Continue

I love the CSO at the Movies series, and yesterday, they were performing Milos Forman’s Amadeus. I have seen this movie multiple times and know it very well, maybe not by heart, but very close to that. Still, it felt as if I watched it for the first time. Perhaps, that’s because my friends who went with me didn’t see it before, and I got this fresh vibe from them. Perhaps, I was just happy to see my friends. Whatever it was, I felt very positive, elevated, and not tired, although the concert ended at 10-40 PM.

For the third time this week, I opted to call Uber, and this time, the ride price was utterly insane. I thought for a moment (after all, the Red Line is right there!), but then I knew that I might wait for a train for a good twenty minutes at this time of the day. I decided the additional 35 minutes of sleep was worth 35 bucks :).

A couple of days ago, I received an email from Greenleaf Art Center which said “we would love you to join us.” Since it was signed by the Ukrainian artist from whom I bought a print during the spring fundraiser, I thought that it would be his event. I was not sure whether I can spend more time on anything except for working on my presentation, but at the very last minute, I decided to go.

Turned out, it was an Art fair, and all studious were open, and I didn’t budget enough time to see even a quarter of the artworks…But I stopped at Khmara’s studio, and we talked a lot – about our love for Chicago, about the war, and about “no piece, but only victory.” So after all, I am so glad I went!

(And do I have to say, that I left this Art fair with another two silver rings?!)

Still, No Gym, But…

Our building gym which was flooded in September looks pretty much the same. It is completely dry, but the carpet is torn, and the lower parts of the walls, the electric outlets, and the heating elements are removed. We were informed that the Association is waiting for the insurance to approve the repairs.

Meanwhile, some of the equipment is moved to the adjacent part of the basement, including the stationary bike. For the first several days, I felt guilty going down to the basement and using the stationary bike in the dark corner surrounded by some random stuff, as if I am committing a crime (or at a minimum, some violation :)). Then, full of guilt, I also started to use some equipment (and I bought two 10 lb weights to use in my apartment, so I can exercise there as well).

Then one day when I mounted on a stationary bike, I noticed that it was set to a different intensity level than I set it . That meant that somebody else was also using it in the dark corner!

And finally, this week, I noticed that the equipment was in use by somebody else as well – I saw different weights and different attachments than the ones I used. That made me smile, because officially everybody is waiting for the gym to be reopen and nobody is using it.

To be honest, I have no idea why we all are so shy of admitting that we use it they way we can :). For me, there is no other exercising option at the moment, and it is too dark in the morning to bike.

Joffrey Ballet

If I won’t return my ticket for the Music of Baroque concert, I would have three concerts in a row (and other cultural events Friday and Saturday :)). Yesterday, I saw “Beyond the borders” performance at Joffrey Ballet.

It consisted of three independent pieces: Vespertine by Liam Scarlett, Colorem by Da Silva, and the remake of Suite Saint-Saëns by Gerald Arpino. The last piece should have been supposedly the best of all three, and judging by the audience reaction, that’s how most patrons felt, but I loved the first two way more, and I am not even sure which of them was the best. These two pieces of choreography as so unusual, so blowing-away, I stared at the stage as if I am hypnotized all the time. Unfortunately, I could not find good pictures of these pieces anywhere on the web, maybe, they will appear later. I still hope that these two photographs from Vespertine give some sense of how it looked!

Once again, there were not that many people in the audience, and I have no idea why – the show is brilliant!

Life Gets On The Way

I can’t catch up with life. I returned a ticket for today’s Baroque concert so that I could catch up on my emails, personal obligations, and to finally finish the example for my bitemporal presentation (there was a bug which I could not figure out).

And life kept getting on my way! Yes, I found a bug, and I found a couple of emails which I forgot to answer, but it’s so little in comparison with what I need to do! And in the middle of me doing all this work, I heard a bang on my door, and my neighbor stormed in with a whole bunch of technical problems (her phone is not working, her facebook is hacked, and more). I do not think I fixed any of that, but at least she walked out being less upset and with some Austrian chocolates.

Oh, and guess what – I found my Bavarian witch, and she’s hanging out on my balcony!

A Family Weekend

My girls were here over the weekend, and this time, nobody got sick (although somebody was coughing), and we did so many things together! We went to the Art Institute, did many art projects at home, drew with colored chalk in the courtyard, and biked!

Nadia stunned me by riding her bike for more than nine miles total! From my house to the Lakefront Trail, almost two more miles to the playground, and then back. I am telling you – an amazing kid!

Anna learned about refugees from me, and she managed to help them in so many ways that I can’t even describe, As I already mentioned, I do not want to talk a lot about this to protect people’s privacy, but just let me tell you – it has become a family project!

I am very sleep-deprived, but I won’t change anything about these past several days!

Refugees

so… I easily could skip this notification from the NextDoor, but I didn’t. And once I saw the situation the people are in, I could neither just walk away, nor drop some donations and check it done.

After one week of doing my best to help (with moderate success), I have a couple of statements to make:

  • It is awesome that we have so many organizations that help refugees
  • It’s ridiculous, that the refugees are not informed about them, and that there is no centralized agency which would direct them to the right resources
  • This whole system of affidavits is wrong, and I do not know how to make it right
  • Last week, I mentioned on this blog that I wonder why none of my Ukrainian friends ever told me that “I do not understand their situation,” and at the same time, most of my friends in Russia tell me that I do not understand their sufferings. Now, I want to make a similar statement. Why a refugee, who was a poll watcher, received multiple threats, had her friends arrested, and finally fleed Russia, why she is saying: Ukrainian refugees do not want to talk to us, I totally understand, after everything we did… and at the same time, people who are currently in Russia are saying: why the whole world is against us, just based on nationality.

Also, I am exceptionally thankful to Anna, who jumped in and spent a good part of her weekend her helping; to Igor who jumped in on the first day and helped in many ways, and to my next door neighbors, who donated not the things which they wanted to get rid of, but the items which were really needed.

What’s Going On With Me

I was completely out of social media for several days. And it’s not only because I am busy with things, but also because I am not sure how to write about these things, or whether I want to write about them.

In short: I am alive and well, deadly tired, and hopefully will be back online soon 🙂

Fiddler On The Roof

Out of all shows in Lyric Opera which were included into my subscription, The Fiddler was my most anticipated! I read the reviews, and the interviews with the artists saying that “it’s not your mother’s Fiddler.” Since I really like the musical, and since I really-really love the book, I was sure it will be the best experience ever.

And it turned to be not exactly that. The musical is already a step away from the book, with reduced number of daughter, Golda not dying, and some parts of the plot omitted. But it still has a spirit of the book, and a very intimate touch.

The Lyric performance feels like further away. Way more of a “show,” way louder. The traditional Jewish melodies are modified beyond recognition.

“If I Were a Rich Man,” in my opinion, is something very different than this clip: it is a very sad song, and Tevye is no Samson. The orchestra is great, the voices are amazing, but it is not the story I expected to hear…

Accomplishments

I am very tired at the moment, but I am overjoyed because in the past two days, I have had two big accomplishments..

First, I finally finished the build of a new bitemporal example for my October presentations. This is going to be my new bitemporal talk, and it’s for the first time that I built a full-size example (the data is forked from postgres_air and not published yet.

Boris helped me a lot with data cleansing, but I also invested many-many hours in this process. And when it was finally built, everything else was easy to add. I still need to work on the actual presentation, but now I have all material!

Second, I made a major improvement in my first project at the new job. I was able to optimize it to the maximum, and now I am confident that the performance will be stable for future growth. Friends, I know that all of this does not make any sense to most of you, but trust me, I have a reason to be happy!

… And They Have Nothing!

I remember the post on Next Door I saw several months ago. The title of the post was “Refugees are here, and they have NOTHING!” The post described the situation in the Refugee center and how they need funds and lots of household items.

I bookmarked that post with the intention to come back later, to message the author, to ask what is needed most, and theт I didn’t. And I thought to myself that there are too many causes in the world, and I can’t address all of them.

What I saw yesterday, immediately reminded my about that post, because that’s how “have nothing” looks. I do not feel comfortable revealing details, even if I won’t mention any names, but let me say, I haven’t seen such level of desperation for a long time, if ever.