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.
Pizza With ODS
I’ve been to the ODS twice in the past two weeks, which is a record, especially considering everything that has happened in the past year. Both times, it was pizza-making, and I have no idea whether we will ever graduate to something more advanced, as we used to cook for years. But again, that’s progress.
There is better staff in the shelter than we have had for years, and even when the youth are not actively participating, I feel that my presence is important to them. I receive more thanks than I deserve. Last week, I said I would be able to come on Tuesday, forgetting that my meetup was scheduled for Tuesday, not for Wednesday. When I realized this mistake, I messaged the volunteer coordinator, who said it was fine. They had the kitchen ceiling painted, so it was not exactly fine. I had to bake upstairs (in the kitchen of the long-term program), so the kids were assembling the pizzas without me – all not ideal, but yay, better than nothing!
Last week was way more fun because we did everything together, but the downside was that we had unbaked dough, so we had to half-bake the crusts and then the pizzas, which took a very long time!
… I am glad I kept trying 🙂
Overheard On The CTA Bus On January 16
— My son told me yesterday: I want to study Islam. I said: You want to study something six thousand years old? Do you know what day it is today? Go and find out what happened in 1968 and figure out who you are!
From a man carrying all his possessions in a rolling cart talking to another passenger.
“When You Do Not Have To Drive”
Two days ago, I stood on the Rogers Park Metra UP-North platform, waiting for the train, and one of the fellow passengers greeted me. It was cold, and the snow just started to fall, sparkling and beautiful. A passenger said: You know, when you do not have to drive, you can enjoy it! It’s beautiful!
The Room Next Door: Pedro Almodovar’s Movie
OMG, it’s just striking! I can’t really say “good”. It’s the wrong word for this movie. Powerful. Painful. Real. Beautiful. I thought it should be great, and I wanted to watch it, but all the showtimes didn’t work, even though Siskel had twenty screenings (literally). I thought I could skip a visit to my mom on Monday and come on Wednesday, and I purchased the ticket, but then I realized that I had previously promised to come to the ODS and finally decided to ask my mom whether she would be OK if I came later. In the end, things worked out. All this was just to say I truly wanted to see this movie, and I was not disappointed.
I almost never went to Siskel Center during the fall because I had too many subscription concerts and shows. Still, in late December/early January, I wanted to catch up and went a couple of times, and one of these times was a complete disappointment/wasted time (The Girl with the Needle). This new Almodovar’s movie, however, was magnificent
Russian Lies #6
The last documentary of the Russian Lies series is about Russian athletes and how they are perceived in Western countries. Once again, there was not that much new information for me, but the most valuable part is a clear explanation of how the Russian government uses the athletic achievements of the Russian citizen to it’s advantage. This situation is very similar to the conferences participation, and that’s what I have difficulties explaining to many of my peers. So many times my peers would ask me why I want to panish people “who didn’t do anything,” and tell me that “they want to support them during difficult times.” And each and single time I explain to them that Russian authorities use these situations (like some important person coming to a Russian conference or some Russian researcher is being accepted to speak at some European conference) as an evidence of the fact that “they like us,” ” they can’t survive without us,” and so on. And they so totally-completely do not get the part which is so clearly explained in this documentary!
***
I managed to finish my training slidesyesterday, and I even did it relatively early in the day. I realized that I needed less than 210 slides because I will have a break in the middle and a quiz at the end. I need to come up with the quiz, and read through the whole thing one more time to make sure there are no stupid typos.
Also (how typical of me!) I realized that I double-scheduled myself for Tuesday and Wednesday (even more for Wednesday), but I must go with that since I made promises. The extra promise I made was for one more pizza-making at the ODS, and since, after almost a year of turbulence, things are finally working there, I am prioritizing these visits.
This week is, in some sense, experimental because I am trying not to stay late and not to rush but still do most of the things I want to.
My mom is still sorting all the presents she received. I showed her all the text messages I received from her party attendees and forwarded to her a lovely email from my two-floors-below neighbor, who admired my mom’s life accomplishments. I think, two days later, she appreciates the party even more 🙂
TIME Magazine: Saying YES Instead Of NO
This article is the last of the “New Year Resolutions” Time Magazine articles that I planned to write about. My initial reaction to the article’s header was – that’s definitely not about me! I say “yes” less frequently than I would love to. But when I started reading it, I realized it was more about my behavior than I wanted to admit.
Full text below.
Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Saying YES Instead Of NO”Mom’s Birthday Celebration
Everything went great, even with all the things I mentioned yesterday, plus today’s problems on the Red Line that made Igor and my mom being 30 minutes late to her party, and some guests as well :). There were a couple of times in the past when my mom got really upset about us not letting her know in advance that somebody was going to visit, that’s why we tried to plan it being a surprise, but not a complete surprise :).
I invited those with whom my mom interacted through all these seven years she has been in the USA, with the hope that she will remember. I was pleasantly surprised that she recognized everyone and addressed everyone by name, even those she hadn’t seen for a long time. About half an hour later, however, she started to ask me again who was who and how she knew them. When I shared this observation with Anna and John, they suggested that she got tired, and they must be right. I am going to focus on the positive side of things 🙂
Everyone whom I asked came, and the food was delicious, and Vanille’s cake was awesome.
Russian Lies #5
The fifth of the “Russian lies” documentaries, that one is about the role of media in Russian society, and it is restricted. Probably the least surprising of all of these documentaries – all happened on my watch.
Hettie's Reflections 