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.

Two CSO Concerts

Just to note that I had some life during the past two weeks, not just conferences, papers, submissions, and millions of other things.

The first one was on April 13, a joint CSO/Joffrey performance. The first part was just CSO, but both pieces were extra special. The first was Chevalier de Saint-George’s First Symphony (and I am all into him since I learned about his existence, which, I hate to admit, happened fairly recently). The second one was Hayden’s Farewell Symphony, which, again, I knew nothing about, and I just thought that all Haydn’s symphonies are the same. The musicians didn’t have the candles on their music stands as they technically should for this piece, but they were still walking away until the last two violins were left. Below is not the CSO performance, but just to show what it looks like:

Then, after the intermission, we had the Joffrey on stage! In fact, they were warming up during the intermission, and everyone in the audience started taking photos 🙂

I especially loved the last piece, Le Bouef sur le Toit, by Darius Milhaud. Of course, below is just the music, without the ballet, and trust me, that was something worth seeing!

The second concert was Mahler’s Seventh on April 17. My neighbor, with whom we usually go, didn’t know what it was going to be, and it was a surprise for her that we would be sitting for an hour and a half with no intermission. But then she was absolutely taken away by the music :). Some works sound especially good when you listen from up close, because you feel like you are surrounded by music, and Mahler’s Seventh is one of them.

Easter

A rare case, especially for spring, when the morning weather was so much better than later in the day!

What surprised me this morning was a large number of people watching the sunrise on the lake. And not just watching, but also setting up a picnic, chairs, tables, food, and water. I mean, I am all for such a way of celebrating Easter, I just never saw it before (or never paid attention).

We had a small Easter celebration at my house, just for me, Igor and my mom.

I bought Colomba bread for the first time in my life, and now I am head over heels about it! It is so rarely happens to me that I can’t stop eating something, but that was the case.

“Great Migrations: People on the Move”

I watched this four-part documentary a while ago and wanted to mention it. It was streaming on PBS, but now you need to subscribe to watch it. I spent a lot of time trying to embed at least some clips, but failed, so I can only share a link to the whole project.

It’s exceptionally interesting and informative, and as I keep saying, even though I know a lot about Black history, this documentary revealed many things I didn’t know or didn’t understand. Although I feel strongly about “no subscriptions,” I subscribed to PBS Passport to watch these series. It’s still a donation to a good cause, not a Netflix subscription!

We Will Always Be Knox!

Learning that Governor Pritzker was chosen as a Knox Commencement Speaker was terrific! In general, news from Knox these days sounds very encouraging. With so many colleges bending to Trump’s ultimatums, it’s great to see those that stand their ground.

Also, the header of the Knox website page is more meaningful than ever: When history calls, be prepared to answer.

I really want to make a day trip to Galesburg on June 8 and listen to the Governor’s speech!

Copying the announcement from the Knox website here.

Continue reading “We Will Always Be Knox!” →

A Day Off

One of the perks of working in a trading firm is that there are no trades on Good Friday. An extra day off is great, especially after several completely exhausting weeks.

Of course, the negative part is that there is no breakfast catering:), but the Charmers Cafe across the street works just fine. And unlike in the office, they make good cappuccino!

Last Week’s Review

There has been almost no “me” here during the last week, but there has been a lot of “me” on professional social media. We were advertising Prairie Postgres and the training we organized on April 24. If it were all in one event (the conference and the training), my life would be much easier, but unfortunately, I have to do double work organizing two independent events (and driving our caterer crazy). I am overjoyed that we were recognized by the Postgres Core Team before the start of the conference because it gave me some stability and protection.

However, I am ending up not having enough participants, because I lost advertising time in the beginning, and because I didn’t have much support in promoting Pg Day from people who were supposed to help.

If that wasn’t enough, I had to finish a tutorial proposal for ADBIS; that was what Boris wanted me to do last year, and I promised, but then didn’t because there was too much going on. This year, ADBIS is happening later (at the end of September), and it will be in Finland, so there were even more reasons to try to submit. Realizing that it would be even worse that year, I wanted to prepare the proposal in January, when I was in Helsinki, but this didn’t happen. I started slow, and the deadlines were approaching, and I ended up writing these eight pages of a semi-academic paper during the last two weeks, on top of my PG-crisis. I was putting away almost everything, but I couldn’t put aside work, and work was in a full-blown crisis because of Trump’s trade war.

And on top of that, somebody asked me to apply for yet another board. I know, it sounds insane, but if this happens, I will share the details, and then probably people will understand why :). Nevertheless, this application took several additional hours.

Also, I was sending reminders for training and making sure I placed as many students as possible to attend the PG Day for free. The results could be better, but they are not hopeless.

I have one more week to survive. It would be much better if Boris were here, but I will manage.

Our NFP Updates

It is now official: a not-for-profit that I founded with two other brave women is now a recognized Postgres NPO and is proudly present on the postgresql.org website.

That means we will have fewer battles to fight and more time to focus on real work to benefit the community.

There is a conference week ahead, and two million things are still not done, but I see the light 🙂

TIME Magazine: The Myth of the Male Breadwinner

Like this article states, “Implying it should be the standard for all because it is the way it “always” was, however, is wrong—literally, and because it holds everyone back from their full potential: both women and men.”

Continue reading “TIME Magazine: The Myth of the Male Breadwinner” →

The Lake!

Things keep piling up, and my life is insane, but on the bright side of it, I am meeting with the Lake during my morning bike rides again!

And also, although you can’t see a sunset over the lake from our side, the evenings are equally beautiful!

“It’s Basic” Documentary

I am on my way home from this event. I was half an hour late, but it was just the right time, as it turned out. The programming started approximately ten minutes after I arrived, and the panel after the screening was only 30 minutes long. After the “official part” was over, half of the audience rushed to the podium to talk with panelists, and I decided I did not want to stand in their way.

I loved the documentary; I cried several times. I am a firm believer in basic income, and I do not need any convincing, but it was great to hear about true stories, scientific analysis of the results, and about what’s next.

One thing that concerns me about this initiative and others like it is the randomness and small size of the groups of people who can benefit. It feels like one extra piece in the boundless mosaic of human services, and when I think about how I would like it to evolve, I would say this program should be as universal as possible.

On another topic: the Green Line was delayed several times both inbound and outbound, but I was able to ignore the surroundings and do something productive on the train.

I am super tired of everything which is happening in my life (including work), but there are things I can’t drop, no matter what.

My main reason to attend was the panelists:

  • Toni Preckwinkle, President, Cook County Board of Commissioners
  • Mayor Michael Tubbs, Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility; “It’s Basic” Film Executive Producer
  • Margaret M.C. Thomas, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice