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.

Mom’s Birthday

My mom turned 90 today. We are giving her a “semi-surprise party” tomorrow, and we have already had enough of disasters: Vlad couldn’t come because the earlier snowstorm in DC pushed the training he had to conduct to the weekend; both Anna and I had a work crisis (and Igor was super busy, too). We had to move to another venue two days before the party. Anna forgot the frame for our collective present at home; all the printing is done not at the last minute but one after the last, and so on.

After disassembling my Christmas tree, I realized I needed new boxes for ornaments. I ordered them, and they arrived, but I didn’t have time even to unpack them until today, so i was repacking ornaments when Anna’s family arrived.

BTW the boxes are great, and I feel like I always feel when I replace something old with a newer model – why didn’t I do it earlier?! It’s so much better!

TIME Magazine: Exercising For PR

One more “New Year” Time Magazine article – I always loved the idea of competing with myself rather than with others. Keep reading below!

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How The New Year Started

Obviously, it’s a new year – a new crisis at work, but in addition, I realized about a week ago that I need to rework the training I am doing in Prague at the end of January. When I submitted this training proposal, I knew “I had it,” but what I didn’t realize was that :

  • It has been two years since the last time I ran this training, and all examples are from the book’s first edition and from the year 2020
  • I need to apply different template/different formatting
  • I have almost three times more material than the training time, so I needed to decide what to keep!

And… that all takes time! And it’s about 220 slides!

Russian Lies #4

I wish this documentary was separated into at least two films because it touches on several different topics. Otherwise, I have little to comment on. Being intimately familiar with the selection process and the teaching methods at the Vaganova Academy through a friend, I never had illusions about Russian ballet. I remember an evening at my Palatine neighbor’s home when her older daughter rushed in after her first ballet class with a Russian teacher: “She was hitting us on our legs! “

As for looting art, it is, unfortunately, a universal problem. Some governments choose to correct their mistakes, and some don’t…

TIME Magazine: History Lessons For Retirement

One of the things I plan to change is that I aim to retire at 65 with a part-time consulting. This article was interesting for me from a historical perspective: some details were new to me.

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TIME Magazine: Questions To Ask Yourself

One more New Year’s article from Time Magazine. I agree with pretty much everything it says. People often don’t believe me when I say I do only those things I want to do, but that’s the driver of my life. When I decide that I “need” to do something, it always means that I “want” to do this to achieve something :). I understand that there is a fine line, but that’s how I think about it, and that’s the most important/ I never think that someone or something “makes” me to do certain things – it’s only me who decides.

I asked myself most of the questions which are listed in this article during the quiet time of the past two weeks, and there are some changes I want to make – because I want some things to change:)

The full text is below.

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Closing The Holiday Season

It has been a very intense weekend. On Friday night, Anna and John were consuming my Christmas gift for them: a Broadway show, a hotel night, and babysitting. Later on Saturday, we got together with them, my mom and Igor for the last Christmas presents exchange. I postponed my Christmas tree removal until Sunday afternoon so that we could open the presents by the tree.

I told the girls that the tree was coming down so they could take everything that they could find on the tree. To my surprise, when I took down all the ornaments, I found two unnoticed chocolate ornaments, one candy cane, and two gingerbread cookies.

Also, I had a scary moment when I could not find my cucumber on the tree! I mean actual “mine” – the one I brought from Russia, the one I had since as early as I can remember. I took the flashlight and finally found it, along with one more lost ornament – the skates from Ireland.

The last look at my mantel and the cards before taking everything down

I took down everything, all the lights and all the other house decorations. The tree was still so fresh, dripping some resin and smelling the forest and the holidays! I couldn’t be happier with this year’s tree!

I am never sad when I put Christmas decorations away. They’ve been up for a month, and I am ready to say goodbye. The day I remove the decorations and the tree is out feels like the actual start of the New Year!

TIME Magazine; Gen Z Is Drinking Less Alcohol

There were several “New Year – New You” interesting Time Magazine articles that i wanted to mention. This one is especially interesting given the latest announcement of the US Surgeon General about alcohol being more dangerous for people’s health than it was previously believed. I can tell from my experience that nowadays, it is definitely more socially acceptable not to drink alcohol, and pretty much any establishment has a minimal selection of mocktails.

The full text below.

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Russian Lies #3

The third documentary of the series is about Soviet and Russian movies. I am leaving only minimal comments here because Russian cinematography is almost unknown in the US, to the best of my knowledge. Even my most frequent movie-going friends had seen very little if any, of the Soviet movies and even less of the Russian ones. And the fact that movies are the most efficient propaganda tool is well-known, so I have nothing essential to add.

Happy New Year!

This New Year’s Eve, the Metra schedule was less convenient than last year; the fireworks were at least twice shorted, and Mayor Brandon Jonson didn’t give a speech before the countdown. But the weather was better, and there were way more people out!