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.

National Art Gallery

After the afternoon tea, nothing went as planned. First, the weather got sharply colder, and all of us ended up not being appropriately dressed for the weather. Anna and Nadia went to meet with Anna’s friends, and I wanted to go to one of the Art museums, but it turned out I mixed up which of the museums was open late. And then it was super cold, and then Nadia got sick with the same bug as Kira, and we had to cancel several things. Then Anna got sick with the same thing, and the weather turned even worse.

One thing I managed to do on our third day was visit the National Art Gallery.
The sculpture garden:

Since it was impossible to see even a quarter of the museum, I decided to focus on one of my favorites – Italian Medieval art. That was one of the best things I’ve done on that trip – seeing this art brings me immense joy.

St James 13th century
St, John 13th century
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An Afternoon Tea At Mandarin Oriental

Vlad worked at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for the first three months in DC. During his tenure there, he designed the Sakura Pink Empress Afternoon Tea, also cherry-blossom-themed. He could secure only four tickets for Sunday, so he, Anna, Nadia, and I went.

I think that that’s one of the cases when “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” so I am going to show the tea menu (each of us selected their own tea, and Nadia got a kid version of the menu, and she also had a sparkling juice).

Continue reading “An Afternoon Tea At Mandarin Oriental” →

National Museum Of Natural History

Sunday was our big museum day – we spent a half of it in the National Museum of Natural History.

One of only two moai in the US
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Hanami

There was one more thing which Anna and I did on Saturday. Vlad made a reservation for us for a Hanami experience in his bar. I had no idea what it was, so I came completely mentally unprepared. Since the whole idea was to come to DC for the cherry blossom season, Vlad wanted us to have a complete experience. As you can see from the pictures, the bar was decorated to look like a cherry orchard.

We were presented with picnic baskets with traditional Japanese treats.

We were also offered several other drinks and later an ice cream and some oyster-like jelly sweets.

Later, Vlad explained to us that the music was purposefully set loud enough so that people could not talk to each other and would immerse themselves in the experience. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/V9tzWe30VRk?feature=share

And here is an article which describes the whole experience in detail.

Touristy Things In DC

The first day in DC we were mostly walking around the city center. The weather was beautiful, and way warmer than in Chicago. We had a late lunch with Vlad

FBI building
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In DC

Our family trip to DC planned six months ago, goes on as a combination of unique experiences and major disasters. The first thing that went wrong was that Kira got sick just 36 hours before the trip, and so neither she nor John was able to come. The rest of us got to DC safely and checked in at Riggs hotel. This building used to be a bank (you can read about its history here), and Vlad is a beverage manager at the Silver Lyan bar in this hotel.

Some pictures from the hotel:

The rooms doors are made to look like volt doors
The old safe contains a mini-bar and an actual modern safe
The 24-hour gym
Hotel bikes

Flight to DC

CSO Concert

Yesterday, I was at the CSO concert. Nobody wanted to go with me, so I returned one of the two tickets and went by myself. I almost forgot that I almost always went to concerts solo before the pandemic. 

I had a physical therapy appointment at 4 PM, and it didn’t make sense to go back home and go to the concert an hour later. At least, I thought it didn’t make sense. I went straight to the Loop and found an open Starbucks on Michigan Avenue, and then I sat there with my coffee and my wrap and my laptop, facing the street and watching the people.

I realized that 1) I didn’t do anything like that for a long time 2) I missed the feeling of being all by myself in the city. 

When I worked in the office and would go to a concert after work, I always had that time between work and the concert, and I would sit at Starbucks or some other cafe, sipping coffee and people-watching. There are not that many places these days where you can sit like this after 5 PM, and it was great to feel that something is returning. 

The concert had Boris’ favorites. I still remember how he gave me the recordings of Mahler and Bruckner to listen. 

The mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca was amazing! The most unusual voice I had ever heard—perfection from the first to the last note.

And one more thing – the whole orchestra wore little yellow and blue ribbons on their chests 🙂

Mom

It has been very difficult to communicate with my mom recently. More than ever, she chooses to complain about everything. Her apartment didn’t get enough heat. I called the office; they told me they would install extra heaters, but then the parts won’t come on time (supply chain crisis), and there was almost a month wait.

So first, mom complained that everybody ignored her. Then she was happy for a couple of days, and now she is complaining that it’s too hot. She does not remember how she didn’t have any control over the temperature in her apartment in Saint-Petersburg. Now she is saying that she could always open a balcony door in Saint-Petersburg, and here she is afraid to open the window.

Then comes a usual chain of complaints like she could always look out of the window and see how people were dressed outside and figure out what’s the weather. Nothing new; it’s just that she repeats it more often, without anything positive in between.

Also, all the conversations related to the war are impossible. Last weekend, Igor brought some local Russian newspapers to her, which she could not ignore. She asks”not to talk to her” about the war, but this is becoming increasingly difficult. On top of it, she forgets more and more things and gets very defensive, if not aggressive, when I remind her. She’s saying that that’s me who forgets things and then “accuses” her. I think I need to message her doctor and ask what’s the right way to handle such situations.

Several other issues are very difficult to handle, but I will stop now so that I won’t do the same thing as she does 🙂

A Picture From Paris

People reminded me that I didn’t show this picture on WP: