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.

What’s Going On At Work

I do not have any time off in December, and I even found out today that December 31 will be a workday. Well, hopefully, I will be able to accomplish something! Although I didn’t do any billable hours yet, there are so many things to do! I still need to install tons of tools on my laptop, learn about proprietary products and go over many hours of training.

I believe that all ethic training combined took around twenty hours. But after all that happened to me this fall, I will never complain about things like that, nor I would ever call such training “stupid.” Now I know how important it is to have a policy in place.

The policy training courses are not very complicated; it just takes time. But I do not even know how to proceed with all the products training. It feels like another sixty hours, at least!

Meanwhile, I shadowed one of the consultants, and I was surprised to see that I could add value to his analysis. These are the two main trends in how I feel about work now: overwhelmed by the amount of learning I still have to do and the surprising impact I can make. It’s not like any other job I had before, and I am still trying to put in words what’s the difference.

It’s for the first time in my life that I work in a truly worldwide company. I never know at which part of the world my tech support ticket will be picked up, and I know that it does not happen because the labor in the other parts of the world is cheaper. It happens because talent is everywhere. That’s the company with no juniors; each individual is outstanding. It’s an honor to be a part of that team.

And More Christmas!

Presents and cards keep coming! I received cookies from my friends in Indiana and chocolates from Sweden.

Continue reading “And More Christmas!” →

People’s Connections

The last several days were filled with visits and conversations, making me feel very good. Yesterday, Anna and her family visited me, and the highlight of the day was going skating at Millennium Park. I told Nadia a long time ago that I would teach her to skate, and we pretty much did it yesterday! She was able to glide for a bit, and she got the feeling of skating rather than walking on ice. I am sure that next time she is on the skating rink, she will skate on her own.
We also had a short visit to the Art Institue and saw the Neapolitan Creche, and then we came back to my house, and Anna made dinner for everybody. Initially, we didn’t plan to eat at home, but we ended up having lunch and dinner at my house. Lunch was a takeout, and then Anna made an awesome paste dinner. I rarely make pasta for myself because it is challenging to make pasta for one :). So it was all good.

I received two presents with my Saturday mail: one from my very dear friend in Chicago and one from my friends in Ireland.

We haven’t seen each other in person for a while now, and my friend made a collage of several photos of us together
One more ornament – love it!
Continue reading “People’s Connections” →

ODS Christmas Party

This year, the Night Ministry decided against the large Christmas party as we used to have in the Church – for the residents of all different programs. However, each program had its own party.

I can’t really tell whether I like it more or less this way (to be honest, I think the food was not of the best quality and variety in comparison with the previous years). But it was still fun, and my cookies were very much appreciated, although the residents kept asking when I will come to make Mom’s soup 🙂

New Christmas Ornament

My Christmas ornaments come from all over the world, and I have a story about each ornament on my tree. Lena’s mother is an artist in Saint-Petersburg. She makes jewelry and stunning Christmas ornaments; I have several ornaments that she painted – Lena gifts one for me almost each Christmas. Now, I follower both her and her mother on Instagram, and I saw this ornament with the squirrel and commented that I love it most.

Well, I got it :). Others on this Instagram post are the ones from previous years.

A Weekend Filled With Holiday Activities

Last weekend, when Lena visited me, we went to the Christkindle Market. Lena didn’t have an opportunity to visit it for many years! It turned out that she didn’t even know that Chicago’s official Christmas tree was moved to Millennium Park!

By then, I visited the marked four of five times, and there was no problem getting in, but there was a huge line to enter that time! The line circled Daley Center twice, and although it was moving pretty fast, it took us 35 minutes to get inside.

Inside, the market was packed! However, it turned out that people didn’t really look around – there were food stands with no lines at all, so we were able to get our drinks (I brought the mug which I got during one of my previous visits, and Lena got a new one), and then food – this time, I chose a “kilometer” sausage.

Continue reading “A Weekend Filled With Holiday Activities” →

The Cookies Travel The World

I do not understand anything about the international mail this year! Although Boris suggested some ideas which might be legit. He says that the international mail is most likely sorted in the local post office right away. Then if there is not that much mail to a specific destination, they might wait longer (to fill a container?) before sending it to the distribution center. It makes sense, and it explains a lot. But now, all of my eight international parcels mailed on the same day are at different stages of their travel.

The parcel to the UK was delivered on Monday. The parcel to Germany arrived on Tuesday, but it was not delivered since a person was not at home. The parcel to Ireland just left ORD yesterday. The parcel to New Zealand was sent to New York (?!), and today it was in Japan (?!). Others either didn’t leave the US yet, or their movements were not reported.

Waiting for the updates:)

And More Cookies!

Usually, I take a lot of pictures when Lena and I are baking and decorating cookies, but this time, we were way too busy. Last year, before the vaccine, I baked all the cookies by myself, and it was great that this year was different!

If not for Lena. I won’t have gingerbread cookies

We baked 910 cookies total! As of now, I shipped 14 boxes and gifted six, and I still have plenty of cookies 🙂

My Christmas Tree

Life was so compressed in the past several days that I completely disappeared from social media except for sporadic Instagram posts.

On Thursday, my amazing neighbors who helped me with the garden texted me that they could take me to get a Christmas tree, and I said – yes, I am coming! It was awesome because otherwise, I would have to ask Lena on Saturday, and that would take more time from our cookie-making.

My tree on my neighbor’s truck

Due to all the circumstances: the supply chain crisis of this year, the fact that I am in the city, and the fact that I needed a bigger tree this year, it ended up being the most expensive tree I ever had, but it was so worth it!

My neighbors helped me lift it to my apartment, and Boris and I set it up in the tree stand. That was the moment I had dreamed about since I first saw this apartment at the end of March!
Still, I didn’t have time to decorate until Lena’s arrival, and I didn’t write all the cards I planned to write by that time. So I still had a challenging weekend ahead.

New Job And Holiday Season

Today is one week since I started with EDB. People are still reacting to my LinkedIn posts and a job update, and the number of views of the job post is already over 4,000. I am shadowing another consultant working with a client. I see that my skills are needed, and at the same time, I am learning new tools and techniques.

And at the same time, I am still downloading and installing missing software, attending training, and learning how things are done.

The help desk is indeed helpful, but in many cases, it isn’t easy to find out what I should install, who can give me access, whether there is any documentation, etc. Most customer engagements are very short, and we need to work really intensely to deliver results in five business days.

Boris is teaching at night again:). I am putting the final touches on the house Christmas decorations – some decorations have found their places, and some will be donated or discarded. And I told Boris I wouldn’t have time to cook as I did last time, but I actually do :).
And also, it is bitterly cold outside but cozy at home.

Continue reading “New Job And Holiday Season” →