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.

Speakers And Travel

We had to replace several speakers because they either didn’t get visas or required sponsorship for their travel. While the latter one was no one fault, the visa situation was extremely annoying. People applied for visas way in advance, and they should not have wait for many months. I am still mad that it happened!

Additionally, there were several mini -calamities, like there were three speakers who forgot to register, and there was one speaker who’s flight was delayed multiple times, so he ended up arriving to the venue nine minutes before his talk! Our head of the CfP Committee was pacing the hallway with the phone in her hand watching for the speaker’s messages. I ran up to the registration desk and checked him in, so that he could have his badge ready. He made it!

I should also mention that our keynote was at risk until days before the event, but this was also happily resolved.

And the program was the best I could imagine!

Wait Time

That’s not about the conference. Today, I took my mom to the doctor’s check-up. It’s difficult to find the time when I can take her to the doctor, because she has become very inflexible and does everything very slow, so I have to navigate to secure appointment at the time when she only minimally alters here schedule. Today, our appointment was at 2 PM, and we were there at 1:40, as they always ask, and the doctor saw her only at 3:10! And he didn’t even apologize!

My mom often critisizes doctors for no good reason, but this time, her critiques were completely justified. I was especially mad that he literally didn’t say sorry he was late! He should know what it takes for a 91- y.o. to sit and wait for 1.5 hours!

It’s not much I can do regarding the doctor change, since she is on Medicaid, but I never had anything like that before, no matter what’s the patient’s status, and I am really upset!

… And Now I Need To Catch Up With Life

Yesterday, I was still meeting with the conference participants, but now I am done, and my French friend who stayed with me during the conference left yesterday afternoon.

Boris and I had 24 hours to ourselves, without any urgent tasks, without answering emails or Telegram messages, without printing additional badges or directional arrows, without replying to sponsors or updating volunteers’ schedules.

We went for a very long bike ride (almost 40 miles) and had a huge breakfast at Lea’s, so I joked that by 9:30 AM, we both burned and consumed all the calories for today :).

There is still a lot of work to close the books for the conference, including all sorts of feedback collection.

I finally feel sleepy. I thought I would sleep for nine hours after the conference, but it’s only today that I feel like going to bed early. Also, I was pushing aside so many “normal” things that I do not know where to start with getting back on track!

PG DATA Conference In Pictures

I know, I know… I know that people do not click the links, especially if this link leads you to several hundred pictures. I know, I know…

Still, I can’t select just a couple of pictures; I can’t even select a dozen or two. I love them all! I just went through the “everything”, which is around 900 photos, and painfully selected just about 300, and that’s the link I am posting here.

I am smiling, going through the photos. Although this time around, I was able to listen to some sessions, it was still a drop in the sea, and it brings me incredible joy to see an engaged audience at each session, everyone listening and asking questions; a great hallway track. Love seeing new faces, love seeing interest and curiosity!

Take a look 🙂

Conference Day 1

Looks like we are rolling! I had tons of positive feedback about the conference; there were many great talks, and it looks like there were no major hiccups (although we will know next week!)

iPhone Adventures

As I mentioned, I broke my iPhone screen on Sunday, and I was so busy with everything that I didn’t have time to figure out how and when I could repair it. I was so sure that I did not have coverage (after all, I knew all along that these iPhones are unbreakable!), that I only did a quick search on repair places. There was none close enough to my office that I wouldn’t have to take two hours off work, so I decided “to think about it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow” finally arrived on Friday, when I could theoretically get off work slightly earlier. I finally asked Google the right question: not “locations of iPhone repair shops” but “how I can replace the broken screen”. And the answer was: click on this link to check whether you have coverage. I checked, and it turned out I did! Moreover, the screen could be replaced while I wait. Apple immediately listed available appointments, and the first available at the Michigan Avenue location was on Sunday at 1:45 PM. The next available at North Avenue was on Saturday, between 5:30 PM and 7 PM. I decided that I do not need to go to the Loop on Sunday, and booked 6:30 PM at North Avenue.

Turned out that was a mistake. There was track repair going on on the Red Line. I “knew” about it, but since I didn’t plan to go anywhere far over the weekend, I didn’t store this information in my operational memory. Also, I knew that the Loop was reachable via elevated tracks, just a slower ride. So it was literally me walking into the Jarvis station and realizing the train wouldn’t stop where I needed it. Also, I quickly realized that I have no time to figure out an alternative route, and the only way for me to get there was Uber, which had two major disadvantages in addition to having to pay for it: 1) it was slower than the L-train, especially on Saturday evening 2) I could not do anything productive during the ride, so it was wasting both time and money at the same time.

Finally, I arrived at the Apple Store at my appointment time (6:40 PM) and waited for a technician until 7 PM (as expected). But then he told me that, because it’s too late in the day, they can’t repair it while I wait, and I need to either leave the phone with them or come one more time. He assured me that if I come any other day before 4 PM, all parts will be ready and they will fix the phone while I wait.

I had to pay for another Uber ride to get home, because I didn’t want to spend an extra 15 minutes walking to the Brown line, and an extra 15 minutes waiting, first for the Brown line and then for the Red.

I didn’t want to come back on Sunday because it would still mean taking an Uber, and I decided to work from home on Monday, especially since it would be the last day Boris and I would be alone (I will have people staying with me during the conference).

Based on what I was told on Saturday, I headed to the Apple Store right after lunch. When I arrived, I was told that the wait time for repair would be three hours, “because we are busy,” and I still don’t understand why this couldn’t be scheduled. I can’t go anywhere without my phone because even my Ventra card isn’t physical anymore. And in any case, it’s 30 min in one direction.

It ended up being three and a half hours, and given where I am now with work, conference, and stuff, I am beyond mad. I had a couple of other maddening things today, all related to time wasted, so it’s very difficult for me to get into a calm mood.

A Long Bike Ride

On Sunday, Boris and I planned a long bike ride with a breakfast stop at Lea. For anyone else, Boris would be considered an Early Bird, but he still does not feel that a wake-up time of 4:30 AM is normal, so we compromise :).

We left the house at 5:40 AM with the goal of going as far south as we could, so we’d be back at Lea by 8 AM. There was a really strong wind from the south, so at some point, I regretted making these plans, but in the end, I was happy we went!

Below are some pictures from the Lake Front South; each time I go there, I do not want to go back north. I wish I could fly to Monroe Harbor each time I am going for a morning bike ride, and then bike south…

Caramel Apple

One more highlight from my Milwaukee trip. Anna promised me the best caramel apple shop ever, and she made sure to include that stop in our biking adventure.

I got the top right – Door County Cherry Dark

They packed it, and I took it home, because it’s not the kind of apple you can eat on the go!

And since Boris doesn’t care about caramel apples, it was all mine! It took me four days 🙂

Pre-conference

Several times a day, I think I should write down everything that happens over just a couple of hours: how many conference-related messages I receive, what they are about, and how many responses I need to send out.

It couldn’t be further from “me doing it all alone,” nothing like that! Many people are helping me and handling huge portions of the work, including catering, sending sponsor information, sending messages to attendees, managing social media, and more!

Still… each time I look at the phone or open my laptop to write something personal, I see yet another thing I need to take care of, respond to, or plan.

The conference is just a week away, and I can’t believe it. And there are so many things to do – still!

Memorial Day Weekend

I am in the final stretch of the conference prep, and there is not a 30-minute stretch when I wouldn’t need to do something conference-related, mostly answering never-ending emails and telegram messages. Boris arrived Friday evening and immediately jumped in to help me, for which I am immensely thankful. We spent Saturday on preparing the room host kits, ordering what else was left to order, and so on. In addition, I am not yet ready with my own presentation slides for the conference, and I realized I didn’t send the Prairie Postgres flyers to FedEx for printing.

Boris said that FedEx’s cutting of the badges (I printed a sample) was not good enough, and volunteered to print and cut them all. I believe it’s way more work, but I didn’t object.

The two non-conference related activities on Saturday included a med-length bike ride, and finally assembling the new coat rack:

Our plans for Sunday and Monday were the following: we had three tickets for Hillary Hahn matinee recital at the CSO (for Nadia, Anna and myself) and then we were all going to go to Milwaukee to visit (Boris haven’t been to Anna’s new house yet).

Nadia studies violin by Hilary Hahn’s books, and we tried to attend a recital last year, and it was cancelled; we finally made it this time.

(I forgot to get the third ticket until the last minute, so I ended up in the back)

This day was not without calamities: it was raining all morning, and I slipped on the Jarvis station steps. Twice. First time was OK, but the second time I 1) ripped my pants (I know it’s fashionable, but I do not like it!), 2) broke four nails, and 3) broke the iPhone screen, which I thought was unbreakable.

I called Boris from the train and asked him to put an extra pair of pants into my backpack, which he was going to bring to me after the concert, and I had to live with all the rest. (I went to do my nails yesterday, and I still need to find time to repair the screen!)

The concert was awesome, and dinner at Ryo Sushi was great as always, and we also went to Amorino, which probably was a mistake because the wait time ended up being 35 minutes.

Then we went to Union Station, boarded on time, but the departure was delayed due to technical issues, and we arrived in Milwaukee with a 1-hour-and-15-minute delay!

Still, the next day was great! Boris and I had chosen the bikes (Anna collected bikes from several friends so that we could choose the ones we were most comfortable with), and we set off for a 30-mile ride! My only regret is that I couldn’t take pictures along the way, and I hope to take them on my future visits.

All bikes in a row
Custard stop
Caramel apples stop

I hope we will do it again!