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.

On The Positive Side: The Birthday Party

Believe it or not, but the presents arrived at 5-30, Anna and & Family returned from the beach at the same time, and Igor and mom came shortly after. I locked myself in my bedroom to wrap the presents while my mom tried to get in and ask whether the presents arrived :).
I’ve got a dozen plastic cups filled with cherries and made two fruit bowls, and secured the candles “1” and “4” in the respective bowls.

The party turned out amazing. I was just thinking about the water balloons, but the neighbor kids were ahead of me and had a whole bucket of them ready:)

There was a balloon fight, and I told them it’s OK to throw balloons at me (I needed to cool down:)). Igor also offered himself as a target, and John smashed water balloons in his fist and threw them back. Also, one of the party items I bought out of desperation appeared to be the greatest hit: the tiny tubes of sparkling body gels! The girls covered themselves in sparkles, and I let them paint all parts of my body not covered with clothes 🙂

Then, a neighbor who is a mother of three girls observed the battleground covered with tiny colorful pieces of rubber and suggested the contest: who will pick up most of the pieces will get the prize! The girls rushed to all corners of the courtyard, and in a matter of minutes, the courtyard was clean. We decided that the race was tight, and everybody got an extra cupcake 🙂

On The Positive Side: At The Beach

I can’ recall being at the beach at 9-30 in the morning since I was 5 years old:). It was great; the beach was empty when we came, and there were waves, and sun, and the water was clean, and everything was perfect

How Many Things Can Go Wrong :)

I will try to catch up on all the things that happened since Thursday because I had no time to write about anything.

It was a birthday week for both of my granddaughters; Kira turned one on Jun 15, and Nadia turned four on Jun 19. The plan was that all the family would come on Thursday afternoon, we would spend the rest of the day on the beach. Then, we planned tons of activities for Friday and Saturday, and we had tons of fun, although the record number of things went wrong:)

First, due to several reasons, they left later, and then hit the rush hour traffic and then came to my place too late to go to the beach.

Nadia, Anna, and I went to the beach on Friday morning while John stayed at home and Kira had her nap, and the beach was awesome. We came to the beach a little bit after nine and were among the first visitors. The water warmed up during the previous several days, and a little bit later, it warmed up even more.
We spent more than two hours at the beach, and Nadia still didn’t want to go home.

After that, things started to fall apart. We planned a birthday party in the courtyard, and I sent an email to the neighbors to come and celebrate with us on Friday at 6-45. One thing I can’t bake is cupcakes, so I ordered mini cupcakes from Vanille Chicago, my favorite patisserie (I blogged a lot about them previously). It turned out that now that I live in the city, I can order delivery, and delivery is free for orders over $50! Yay! I ordered delivery on Thursday because we didn’t plan to be at home most of the day on Friday, and that was the only thing that went perfectly well – the cupcakes were delivered to my doorsteps when promised, and they were flawless.

I ordered both my and mom’s presents from IKEA because they have the best toys ever, and I did it two and a half weeks in advance. They said the parcel would be delivered on Monday, June 14, but it was not, and nothing appeared on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they sent me tracking information with delivery by the end of day Wednesday. The next morning, they changed it for delivery by the end of Thursday, and you guess what happened then… Now, the question was whether the presents will arrive before the party…
In addition, Anna realized that she forgot all the party supplies at home, so we had to buy something instead. I wanted to maximize their time at the beach, so I insisted that I go to Target and pick up the party supplies. Anna told me what she had in mind, but Target was almost out of everything. I spent some time figuring out what I should buy instead (everything worked great in the end), and then I walked to the CTA station thinking whether I should go to Jewel Osco or go back and join the family at the beach. Suddenly, I saw the message from my ecobee saying that my air condition seems not operating properly, which meant that I had to go home and see what’s up.

It turned out that the A/C was indeed not working, which was a problem with 84F outside and having five people and one dog sleeping in the house. Also, my co-worker who lives nearby just texted me that he is coming to visit and see the girls.

I returned home, let him in, and called the Heating and A/C service, which we used before. It was already after 4 PM and Friday, and I knew they do not work after-hours and weekends, so when they didn’t return my call, I realized I needed to find an emergency service.

So here I was, at 5 PM, googling the emergency AC repair, having Anna & Family at the beach, my co-worker in my house, presents didn’t arrive, my mom and Igor calling and asking when they can come, party supplies not unpacked and dinner for seven people not even started, not even mentioning the fruit plates which I planned to make for the girls instead of the birthday cupcakes!

Today

Way too many things happened today, good and bad, but overall the goodness outweighs the badness 🙂 And the day ended perfectly with Anna taking me out for a drink and dessert :).

And One More Thing

One more thing I like about my new home is the view from my bedroom windows and from the sunroom. All these windows face the same street, and I can’t even explain what is so special about this view. But each time I look out of the window, I feel as if I am in a hotel in the city center of some European city:)

There are lots of noises in the late evening, but they never bother me. I am falling asleep hearing the sounds of the city night life 🙂

Breakfasts Outside Are Back!

Not like I didn’t have them at my new place, but until I had the flowers planted on my balcony, it felt like something is missing, and I didn’t feel that immense pleasure of having a breakfast outside as I normally would. But now, that part of my life is back 🙂

Winds By The Lake

The past two mornings were windy, and there were some waves on the lake – not crazy, but still. I hope that that’s enough reason to show yet another sunrise 🙂

Can you spot a seagull?

Chicago Reopening

Chicago reopening is happening in a non-obvious way. Most of the museums and attractions are moving slowly, and often, there is no way to find out except for some random announcements.

Just five minutes ago, I found out that the Bean and the Buckingham fountain are open! And I can’t find any information about the Crown fountain. I would love to know because my granddaughters are coming on Thursday, and I was so hoping that they will be able to splash in the Crown fountain.

Most of the Museums lifted the mask mandate for vaccinated people, but we might keep our masks on when going to the Aquarium because the children are not vaccinated. Honestly, I would prefer that they keep the mask requirements but open the children’s centers and cafes.

When I walk the street of the city, which I love so much, I see many places that are closed forever. I recall how in spring 2020, I wrote a post about the “wounded city.” And now I walk the streets and still see these wounds. Some of them still didn’t heal; others did, but the scars remain… God only knows how long it will take, but it could be worse…

That’s my city!
Restaurants running out of capacity

My Balcony Garden

My amazing neighbors, who helped me to plan my balcony garden, took me to the WIndy City Nursery for flower shopping. I told them that they have to stop me because I am used to a bigger patch, but they laughed and said that this is therapeutic.

This whole project lasted for two weeks. I could not start with the garden when I moved because I was busy fixing the essentials, and then it was already “late in the season.” When I tried to buy the flower baskets, it turned out that most places were sold out. I finally purchased some on Amazon for a way higher price, and then it turned out that the “adjustable” brackets were not adjustable enough to fit my railing!
I tried to shop for different brackets, and then my neighbor who helped me with the bike told me that he could give me a saw to try to cut these brackets.

I spent a half-hour cutting one, and the baskets would still be wobbly. Then he told me that I could use zip tights to secure the baskets. It turned out they work perfectly! I should not have spent time on anything else!

The flower shopping was fantastic! The Windy City is a small family-owned place, but the variety of plants is truly amazing. I could not stop 🙂

Continue reading “My Balcony Garden” →

A Hectic Weekend

I am very unhappy about this weekend because I feel like I accomplished nothing (in contrast to the previous weekend). Yes, I had a lot to do, and I forgot how long the planting takes, but still – I needed to do all the things I didn’t do :).

I had several things to complete for both my current work and for my side job, and I completed less than a half for each of them. So now I have this feeling of “there are not enough hours in the week,” and it does not help.

Yesterday, I spent over an hour figuring out why my function did not work and finally went to bed without any solution. Before going to bed, I emailed Boris that things don’t work, and I panic. He replied that I should get out of panic because panic is not the right place for problem-solving. 

He was right, of course, and when I woke up, I figured out the stupid mistake I made the day before. I do not know how IT people who are married to non-IT people can survive!

Saturday was Boris’s birthday. Last year we still could not travel at that time, and I baked a rhubarb tart, and he bought a rhubarb tart, and we ate them on facetime 🙂

This year, Boris said he does not have time to buy a rhubarb tart and that my apple cake is better anyway. So, yes, I baked the Georgis Apple cake yesterday. I told Boris that I would not tell anybody that it was with him in mind, and it was cool with him.

I brought the Apple cake down to the courtyard and messaged all the neighbors. Not everybody was there, of course, but those who were there loved it! Some people were still thanking me today 🙂

I was really happy that I had a way to say Thank you to my amazing neighbors! And I will definitely bake it again 🙂