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.

Making My Christmas a Happy One

My Christmas is made of a million small things, which can be hardly called traditions – they are too tiny for the word. In any case, I am doing every year, for every Christmas, and which make me feel that the holidays are approaching. 

I buy my tree from the same farmers for something like 17 or 18 years. They know me, I know them. We ask each other, “how are you,” and we mean it:). We were chatting with the owner’s daughter-in-law about how busy we are and how Thanksgiving was late this year, and everything is so compressed… and she said: I know I won’t have time to do everything and I am trying to concentrate on important things. Tomorrow I need to drive to pick up my daughter from the airport, and this is important. I know I won’t have the Christmas tree put up on time, but that’s OK! I can’t even describe how it felt to hear from a person from the Christmas Tree farm such kind of complaint!

—

Today, I was shipping the first several boxes of cookies, the ones which will travel the longest distance. Because of the train delays, I ended up going to the post office not after work, but before. I was first in line, and a post office clerk was not yet exhausted by demanding customers. So we chatted a little bit. She told me that I only needed to fill in one form per package, not two, and that I can do it online. Then came the usual conversation: yes, I want the most expensive option, yes, I know how much it costs, I do it every year.      – -So — cookies?   

– Yes

One the third box she asked:

-So…these cookies… Did you buy them or did you make them?

-I make them! Every year. And no worries – I know how to pack them so that they won’t break!           

I do, indeed!           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Greetings from the Knox College

I always thought that Anna has chosen a great school to attend, and the greetings I’ve received today is another proof.

The email from the college president said:

At Homecoming this year, we asked members of the Knox family to share a moment of cheer with you this holiday season. Watch the video (and turn up your sound)!

Very best wishes to you for a joyous 2020

Here is the video –

The reason I received this email (which means that I am on alumni list) is that I am a monthly donor. And the college has a beautiful way to say thank you – sending personalized video messages from the students who benefit from the college fund.

Catching up with Work, Life, and Christmas

The conference left me a week behind with work and a week behind with Christmas. And one of the things I do not like doing is rushing through the “Christmas things”. I like doing all that I am doing for Christmas, and I like doing it with no rush, preferably with time for blogging.

I do not have the latter one that year, but I am doing my best to do all my favorite things:). Doing these things is a priority, and I will show them if I will have time 🙂 For now – just my newest things from IKEA:

P.S. – I thought I published this blog post Saturday morning, but turned out, I didn’! Now, there will be two in a row 🙂

What was Going On with Me

Not like the whole world needs to know, but for a benefit or my friends who are following my life events here. Now, that the worst crisis is over, let me describe what was happening in my life starting from last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday was a Thanksgiving Eve, and my daughter’s family and Boris were arriving almost at the same time, and I had to be at two different places simultaneously. It ended up being not so bad, the planning was close to perfect on my side, but it was an intense day, and the previous three weeks were pretty loaded.


As my friends may remember, I am going to have cataracts surgeries soon, and in preparation, I had to switch from hard lenses to soft lenses. I wore hard contacts for most of my life (since I was 19), and since my prescription is high, I can’t wear glasses without significant vision decrement. Because of that, I do not own a pair now, which would be up to my current prescription. When I switched to the soft contacts, the doctor told me that my vision would be changing, because the eyeball would be returning to its normal shape. Because of that, she didn’t want me to order a whole box, but rather have a pair and then come back to her and see whether the prescription needs to be changed.


Since the start of the process, I’ve already changed it twice; and I was supposed to come in on Saturday morning after Thanksgiving.


Wednesday night, when I took the lenses off, I did something really stupid – since I do not have all the soft lenses process in my fingertips, I accidentally washed the good pair off! I was scared for a moment, but then I thought – fine, I still have one good lense, and one of less strength and I can manage for these two days.
It was inconvenient, but OK, I could not drive, but my daughter and my son in law were here so that they could do all the driving. Then on Friday, when I put to lenses in, it started to hurt, We went to the city, as planned, but it was getting worse. While we were watching the Wreathing of the Lions ceremony, I got a call from my eye doctor’s office. They said: you know, the doctor ordered several lenses to try, but they didn’t come. Do you still want to come in? I was crushed! I told – of cause! Maybe, she had some of the previous prescriptions left, because now I can’t see a thing! My daughter insisted we go to the nearest Walgreens. I bought the solution and tried to switch the lenses. It was still hurting, so after another half an hour of struggle in the Museum I announced I am going home. I walked to the train station, and then in Palatine Boris walked to the station to meet me, and we headed home together.

Continue reading “What was Going On with Me” →

I Absolutely Have to Brag About Vlad

Quick Update

Just a short notice for my friends, who are following my life events through this blog: I am alive and well, but since Wednesday, there were lots of things going on in my life, with different levels of drama. Hope to be able to report on them shortly 🙂

A Thanksgiving Eve

Here is what I have on the eve of Thanksgiving. The training is completed in terms of it is written, but I still have several examples to rework because they bear too much of the company specifics. Also, it needs more proofreading, formatting, etc. And one rehearsing together :). Also, I still have to prepare my big talk on the second day of the conference, And also, there are several important tasks to complete at work, and if they aren’t done today, they will spill into the long weekend.

Other than that 🙂 … Both fridges are full and barely closing:). I took the turkey out of the freezer to defrost on the lower shelf of the fridge, but as of last night, it was still stone-frozen. Moreover, since two boxes of mixed greens were placed close to it, they were utterly ruined by being frozen!

It’s our family tradition, that no matter how hard we try, we need to run to the store at least twice on Thanksgiving morning because something got forgotten. This time, it started even before Thanksgiving: I already made two “forgotten stuff” trips to the Eurofresh store. We’ll see whether there will be more:)

I’ve ordered outrageously expensive but also outrageously good pies from Vanilla Chicago, and they are already in my fridge (yes, apparently, my fridge is elastic :)). We had a Thanksgiving lunch at work yesterday, Anna and her family, and Boris are coming tonight, so it’s all good except for (or because of:)) life is so busy.

Four Vanilla Chicago Pies in my trunk
I have an elastic fridge:)

Taking Selfies

Yesterday, I came across a question in one of the blogs I follow: why people are posting selfies and how you react to somebody posting lots of selfies. 

I can tell you how I reacted: I immediately remembered that I took several selfies in our office gym after I was done with my personal training. Now, why I made these selfies in the first place? 

I like to post my selfies in the gym not because I want people to admire me (eeem… for this as well :)) but mostly to demonstrate that even way after 50, you can be fit and active. I am fifty-six now, and I had very serious back surgery less than two years ago. I still have some limitations, and most likely, I will never be the same person as I used to be, but it does not mean that I should “accept my age.” Actually, thirty-five years ago, I was in the worse shape :).

This morning our office gym was empty; it looks like half of the people started their vacations earlier. So I was able to take these pictures without disturbing others.

Christmas Comes to Palatine

Everybody is posting pictures of beautifully decorated streets and houses, and it’s challenging to stand out in this crowd. I am still going to post the photos from the Holidays on the Town event in Palatine.


Last Friday, the was an official ceremony of the Lighting of Chicago’s Christmas Tree, but I didn’t stay in the city. I returned to Palatine to take my Mom on the tour of our local businesses. Everybody stayed open till 9 PM; everybody had food and drinks for the visitors, and each shop was beautifully decorated.
I was really happy that with my new iPhone 11 Pro I could take the perfect shots in the dark!

Follow me 🙂

Continue reading “Christmas Comes to Palatine” →

Home Movies from the 1970s, Part 3

That is the last of the three digitized movies. It covers the period from summer 1972 to winter 1973. I am nine years old at the beginning and ten at the end. In the beginning, you can see that my front teeth are broken. That was due to an accident at the carnivals when Mom and I were riding a tiny electric car and bumped into another one. At that time, there was no easy way to fix them, and they remained broken until I was nineteen or so.

That summer, I was at the same place in Estonia, and I played with the same dog Neron as a year earlier. We went on a trip to see an Orthodox Convent. A cat named Dunia lived in the house where we were renting. Also, I think I’ve visited an exhibit of Rodin’s sculptures because I am trying to present them :).

In the last scenes of this movie, I am already wearing glasses. Mom and I are going cross-country skiing, and most likely, my Grandfather was filming us.

Enjoy 🙂

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.