I didn’t know that about Finnair, although – could it be any different?!
The Airline Santa Flies :)
I didn’t know that about Finnair, although – could it be any different?!
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.
Love This Photo
Boris took this photo from the front camera of his flight. That’s how it looked when the plane was flying over Greenland. There was a Polar Night, but because of the height of the flight, the sun over the horizon was visible. Isn’t it cool?!
Too Many Things :)
Just a couple of paragraphs about the craziness of my life in the past several days.
I was hoping to pack all the international parcels and write all the international cards by the end of Sunday. And I was not ready. I had all the cookie boxes packed, but I didn’t write all the cards to go along with the boxes, and I was not done with other international cards.
Monday was my first real working day in EDB, and also Boris was coming in the evening, and I had to finish all the parcel packing and custom forms creating. There was no way it could fit!
The thing that made me really nervous was that I could not print the labels for the parcels that went to Russia. I have no idea what’s the problem, but the USPS site allowed me to print all labels except for the Russian ones.
After some digging, I realized that I could print the customs forms, and the only thing I could not do was pay for the shipment. The slight problem was that I had exactly zero extra time and that the Rogers Park post office is about 2 miles away from my home with no direct public transportation. The trip would take about a half-hour one way regardless of whether you walk or take CTA. Biking would be the fastest, but the weather turned sharply cold overnight. Besides, being on the bike with three boxes is very challenging.
So I had to excuse myself from work in the middle of the day and do CTA +walking. There was no line in the post office, which was quite unexpected :), and I had all my boxes shipped. Still no idea why I was not allowed to leave them with the rest of the pickup.
At the same time, I had to do work meetings, install some software, participate in discussions, and talk to Boris and finish the remaining international cards. And then mom called and said that after her WIndows upgrade, she can’t do anything on her computer because everything “looks different.”
It looks like I am done with all crises, but… oh, well.
Cookies In Progress
How It Feels
Life still seems not real. During the conference, the time felt thick with all of the events happening. I gave two talks, and I talked to people literally all the time. I could catch up with many people I knew before and make new connections. Also, I spent a lot of time with my new co-workers. Usually, you won’t spend time with your co-workers at the conference, but since at EDB, we are remote by definition, it was a rare opportunity to meet people in person.
“We – at EDB” – this still sounds and feels unreal. I could not imagine what an impact it would have on me. I was setting up my new email yesterday and typing my name followed by “enterprisedb.com” I felt like, “this can’t be true!”
And at the same time, it feels so right, so normal… all these emails coming to my new account, all meeting invites.
The comments on LinkedIn blow off my mind… and it’s funny how people congratulate EDB with almost the same frequency as they congratulate me:)
Oh, and I am still baking cookies, decorating the house, and thinking about presents…
My cookies in NYC
At NYC, At The New Job, And My Life Just Took a Sharp Turn Again!
It does not feel real. Today is a week since I accepted the offer from EDB, just a week and Thanksgiving weekend in between, and two million things happening simultaneously. All the paperwork with the new company, cleaning the previous company laptop, getting ready for the conference, working on the program committee, with all the last-minute cancellations and talks substitutes, and – did you update your talk template?! – no, I didn’t, should I?!
Today is my first day, and that’s the day I flew to NYC – the first live conference since Jan 2020. I am in NYC for the conference, and I was at the EDB team dinner, and for the whole dinner, I was at one table with Robert Haas (not to mention Bruce). And the CTO walked to me and drank with me for the big day! It does not feel real – to be in the very heart of Postgres and to be there for real, not as an “honorary member.”
Yes, I know – a million things happened in the past week, and I didn’t blog about any of them, and my world had changed again – OMG, how did it change!!! It is more than happiness…
:)
Two reasons Boris could not come here for Thanksgiving were two Ph.D. defenses. One was in Saint Petersburg, and it’s already done, and the other one will be in Finland (not in Helsinki, but I forgot what’s the name of the city close by).
Today, he called me at 5 AM my time to show off in a tuxedo which they lent to him for the event. I do not think he ever wore a tuxedo in his life :).
Looked nice 🙂
A Slightly Dramatic Cookies Decoration
On Monday, we were decorating Christmas cookies in the ODS. It was a very dramatic story. First, since I was coming from home rather than the office, I was somewhat late (I can never calculate the time correctly). What was worse – when I transferred to the Blue line, I saw that I had to wait for 14 minutes until the next train. Unfortunately, the train got delayed even more and then more, and I ended up coming 50 minutes later than I planned.
The next thing I learned was that the oven was broken. It turned out that it was not broken entirely, it’s just that the door was not staying closed, so I had to watch it all the time. I had some baked cookies with me, which I baked at home, so we could start decorating them right away.
The cookies in the oven didn’t turn out very well either. That oven does not bake evenly even on its best days, so even when you use a small baking sheet, the further side is burned, and the from is undercooked, but with the broken door, it was even worse. I destroyed almost the entire first batch!
Then, one of the girls who really wanted to decorate was not there (I knew she had a class, so the fact that I came later left no chances. Many people were not interested and/or wanted to eat undecorated cookies right away 🙂
We ended up making some really nice ones, but I was so frustrated that I didn’t even take pictures! Oh well, next time!
Family Thanksgiving
I can’t finish this post for five days:), so it might give an impression that our Thanksgiving was canceled this year one more time. But we had a Thanksgiving after all, and it was a beautiful one! Until almost the very last moment, we were not sure whether we would get together because Kira didn’t feel well. Fortunately, she felt better Thursday morning, and the COVID test was negative so that the whole family could come.
Boris could not make it this year because several work things piled up, and Vlad almost never can make it. We ended up having a family zoom, but a big part of the family was at one place, unlike last year. It was also an opportunity to test the setup with my large movable screen – we moved it to the dining room for “giving thanks.”
Nadia had a great time playing with my friend’s 7-year-old daughter. They barricaded themselves in the sunroom and didn’t let adults in :). The adults enjoyed the conversation, and I was so glad that we had this gathering!
Hettie's Reflections 