On family history, parenting, education, social issues and more
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.
Each time I bike in Helsinki, I marvel at how awesome the bike paths are! I can’t even compare it with Chicago! Pretty much anywhere in the city, the bike lanes are clearly marked, and it is completely safe to bike. And there are so many different routes! In Chicago, if I decide to go biking after work, I have to navigate heavy traffic even if I follow the bike routes, and it might take me up to 30 minutes to reach the Lake Front Trail. Here in Helsinki, I can bike anywhere at any time of the day!
Who was lamenting that travel will never be the same?! It is “the same,” and I do not like it :). Half of O’Hare is maskless; the security lines are gigantic, the planes are full – I forgot how to sit that close to others! At the same time, there is still no choice of food unless you pre-ordered.
However, the spring in Helsinki is beautiful! The non-stop flight arrives early, and during my first day here, I got all my favorite things: the salmon soup, blueberry pie, ice cream on the seashore, and a ninety-minute bike ride with crazy up and downhill all the way!
Our local Greenview Art Gallery opened a benefit exhibit featuring the works of Ukrainian artist Anatoliy Khmara with all proceeds going to support Ukraine. Khmara came to the US on a special visa for persons with Exceptional Abilities over 20 years ago. Many of his relatives are still in Ukraine, and the exhibit opens with their portraits.
He paints magical landscapes and blooming flowers, but I was immediately drawn to his Chicago pictures. The picture of Montrose Harbor made in the most unusual colors caught my attention.
It did not fit either in my budget, or on my wall, but I could not take my eyes off it. When Khmara asked me which picture I liked, I pointed to this picture but added that I can’t afford it either way. He said that he should have smaller prints of it, but Igor and I told him we had already gone through the bin and didn’t find any. Then he asked one of the staff to check in the back because he remembered he had a smaller print. She fetched one but said it was marked as sold. But, she added, we can other another one. Khmara said – why, we can give her that one, and order an additional print for that other customer :). I could not say “no.”
My “war budget” for April was long gone, but the staff offered to pay in installments, which I gladly accepted.
This is the actual paintingAnd that’s the print I got
Yesterday, the HWL hosted a meeting of the Society of Midwest Authors meeting – the first one in-person since the pandemic’s start. The UIC professor Dick Simpson discussed his new book, “Democracy’s Rebirth” with Mayor Lori (who wrote a preface for that book).
The worst thing about this event was that it went completely not advertised! One lady in the audience asked me how I learned about this event, and I replied that I was looking for something else on the library website. If I won’t looking to reserve a group room, I would never see it! The library announced that the number of participants would be limited to 300, but I do not think there were 300 people there. Those who came wondered how others would miss an opportunity to see the Mayor right in front of them on the stage :).
The conversations around me in the auditorium were even more interesting than on stage. Several people had some organizing/political background, and they exchanged their life stories. One gentleman said that after he retired, he took a crash course to become an ESL teacher and how he wanted to go to Sait-Petersburg and how now he is glad he didn’t go “because he won’t want to aid Mr. Putin.”
There is a special exhibit on the 9th floor to mark the centennial of Harold Washington. For some reason, they don’t allow any photography there, so there is nothing to report.
And I also checked out the Winter Garden – it’s gorgeous, and maybe next time, I will get a chance to grab a table there 🙂
Such a great book! I do not remember who recommended it to me, and I do not know why I was putting away reading it for so long! I purchased it on Audible a while ago and almost returned it without reading it because other books were in line… I am so glad I didn’t return it!
I knew very little about that period of American history. I knew times were bad, but I could not imagine to what extent! The eco-catastrophe described in the book looks almost not real and, at the same time, too close to nowadays climate change warnings. How people could forget that such horrible things already happened not so long ago. Another thing that struck me is the description of poverty and how many people showed no compassion. Knowing how deceiving the Soviet propaganda used to be, you tend to think that everything they said back in the days was not true. And then you feel shocked realizing that indeed, people were exploited, and indeed, capitalists were afraid of the unions, and indeed, communists risked their lives, and they, indeed, did some good things!
One of these books, when you are sad you’ve finished it already :).
The last couple of days were the days of major planning. All of a sudden, all my subscriptions came due for renewal. And since all of them had to be altered, I had to call each place instead of renewing online. I am converting most of the subscriptions to one instead of two. Now that everything is open and people have more options, it has become harder for me to find people interested in attending shows with me. Also, I am out of town pretty often, and other people are out of town from time to time. So I figured there would be shows I won’t be able to attend, and I will be able to exchange these tickets for a second ticket to other shows. That’s my math:).
Also, it looks like I figured out my travels until mid-June. There are so many things I want to do this summer! As usual, before summer starts, I have tons of plans, and then I have trouble fitting them all in. And I didn’t even look at Ravinia and Grant Park Music Festival programs!
The only thing I need is for the weather to be cooperative. There will be a year since I moved to the city in a couple of weeks, and slowly but surely, I am starting to take advantage of everything Chicago has to offer.
Gorgeous sunrises – I will have them for more than four months!My new favorites from IKEA
Yesterday, I dropped off one of my bikes for a tune-up. I was looking for a bike repair shop fin Rogers Park for a while, but since I had two neighbors who knew how to repair bikes, they never let me get to the shop :). Now, both of them had moved, which gave me a push to finally find a new to-go place.
I chatted with the owner about the time when I would pick up the bike, and I mentioned going to Europe next week. He asked where in Europe, and when I replied, he asked whether I was not afraid of crazy Russians being too close there.
I made full disclosure, and we talked a little bit about the war and how it feels in Europe, and that yep, Finland is a little bit too close to the crazy neighbor.
Everybody is asking me about Finland joining NATO as if I know more than the general public.
I had my girls over for Easter Saturday. They took a train from Milwaukee on Friday evening, but not just that; they also brought Nadia’s bike with them and a bike seat for Kira. With all this equipment, walking from the Union Station to the CTA was a challenge. To minimize the walk, we decided to take the Brown line and then switch to the Red Line, and with all the waits, it took us 1 hour 40 minutes to reach my house(instead of one hour!). We made it and thus proved our dedication to reducing the carbon footprint, but it was a major project.
On Saturday, we could not figure out how to attach a bike seat to one of my bikes, and I thought that if all of this was for nothing, and we won’t be able to go on the bike ride, it would be a major disappointment. Fortunately, after multiple tries, Anna figured out how to attach the seat to another bike :), and we left – an hour later than planned.
Nadia was a champion – we biked all the way from my house to the start of the Lakefront Trail – it’s 2.7 miles one way! And it was pretty cold, especially closer to the lake. And Nadia fell off the bike several times, hurting different parts of her body, but afterward, she would get back on her bike and keep going. Amazing kid!
On the way back to the train station, Igor helped us to carry things, and it was tons easier! That way, we actually made it in one hour!
One thing that Boris nor I realized until today was that Russia closed its borders from the inside. He only found it out when he was boarding the bus – the bus driver checked the passport and the vise and “a reason” that would allow a person to travel. Visa is not enough anymore. It has to be either a working visa, a resident card, or a passport from another country. I was shocked that nobody mentioned it earlier, and I have no idea when it happened because there was nothing like that at the beginning of March. And that’s precisely what I am afraid of – that he won’t be able to get back to Finland one time.
I don’t understand why people say that “the whole world turned away from Russians,” while in reality, the Russian government does worse to their citizens than any other country.
Another thing which we wonder about is the large number of Ukrainians traveling from Russia to Finland. If you are in Russia, it is understandable that Finland is the only way out. But I wonder why so many people with Ukrainian passports are in Russia at the moment. Boris says it was half of the bus, plus two more people boarded at the checkpoint. He says they were asked to go to the border control before everybody else and that everybody was exceptionally respectful toward them. Could they be the people who were “liberated’ by Russians? But then, why and how are they allowed to leave the country?
And once again, about “Moskva.” I heard two interviews, one of the retired US admiral and one of some British expert, and they both second what Boris “decoded” from the official statements. Boris still says that it should have sunk within minutes, and that’s what Ukraine states. I am a little bit afraid to be happy, but I am.
Hettie's Reflections 