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.

War Thoughts

We can survive pretty much anything Tram would try to do with our country. I am pretty sure about that, partially because of the usual percentage of pre-election promises being and not being realized and partially because I remember what Anna taught me about how the Congress works (and why it works that way).

There is only one thing that might be irreversible, and I am afraid of it – the betrayal of Ukraine. I believe that it may happen because I know that the business wants to end the war. Nobody from the business side of things wants the war, and the business does not care about what the end of the war will entail. No matter how much analysis is done, they still do not care about what will happen in two weeks, yet along, in several months.

I know that the call is to end the war, and if Trump would end the war the way he wants, it will mean that Ukraine as a state will cease to exist. I imagine that there are a lot of people who don’t care, but even if they don’t care about Ukraine they should understand that the next war will be inevitable. I probably shouldn’t mention that Biden’s decision regading the missiles usage is too late, and as much as I hope for the best, I don’t believe that any major wins are possible.

Everything else will be fine.

The Marriage of Figaro in Lyric

That’s a very long opera!!! Even though we took an Uber back home, it was 11-30 PM when I entered my apartment, and I went to bed after midnight. This morning, I thought I wouldn’t survive the workday and a meetup afterward, but somehow I am alive :).

The performance was perfect!!! Totally worth some sleep deprivation :).

Beautiful voices, great acting, and each performer was a perfect fit for their role. The whole production was put together exactly how Mozart should be performed: joyful, a little bit silly, funny, a little bit naughty, but just a little bit, without being vulgar.

Multi-Threading Again

After I returned from my October trip, it took me a while to catch up with life, mainly because I didn’t have much weekend time. I had a complete meltdown on Friday because I was so tired of putting things together and catching up on things that one trivial problem felt like a world crisis.

Since then, things have improved. 🙂 I was able to reschedule my January trip, write some documentation for my work project, resolve all major issues with the conference, and, as an extra bonus, receive the IRS tax-exempt letter for a new NFP I am setting up. There are still a couple of things with this NFP that are waiting for a resolution, so I do not want to talk much about them right now, but things are looking positive.

Zoolights!

I can’t recall the last time I visited Lincoln Zoo! It was never convenient, and the funny story is that even after I moved way closer to it than we used to live, it continued to be inconvenient to get there. My friend suggested we go to the Zoolights on Saturday, and I immediately said it was a great idea and asked Igor whether he was interested. My friend ended up not going, but Igor and I still went, and it was great! I took tons of pictures and videos, and here are some – also, showcasing the works of my new iPhone 16 Pro!

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Continue reading “Zoolights!” →

Escorting

I didn’t go to the clinic escorting for over a month (my trip and then the DIno sleepover). Fortunately, it is still relatively warm, so I knew I could survive a shift. And although I could, indeed, survive the temperature, the overall situation there was horrific.

I was told that it was even worse on the previous Saturday when there were several dozen antis. Other escorts told me that the week before, not only did the police arrive, but they also helped to protect the patients from antis. The police made a “human fence” and even pulled one of the active antis away from a patient.

Still, there are way more antis than us, and they are so impudent, so shameless, so loud…

Also, the parking across the clinic is now under the new management, and they increased the parking fees almost twice and made the pricing almost invisible. When motorists exit the highway, it says “Public parking” and nothing else; there is no bar at the entrance, and the cost of parking is hidden behind a brush. Almost all patients whom we asked didn’t pay because they didn’t know they should have paid. We started telling them that they might be better off using street parking.

It was probably the last time I went escorting before the cold weather, and I do not feel good about not being there for the next three months. I just know that I won’t be able to be outside for two and a half hours, but I still feel guilty.

ODS

As I already said multiple times, things have not been working with ODS recently, and I had so many last-minute cancellations that I almost lost hope that something would ever happen. In October, the volunteer coordinator and I made another attempt to schedule things, and I sent to her a list of dates when I could come. Then there were no communications for three weeks, so the day before I was supposed to come I emailed her again asking to confirm that we were still on.

There was no response to my email. I had the cell number of the previous coordinator, but I couldn’t find the new coordinator’s phone. At some point, I had a crazy thought that I should just go there, but having what I have in my life these days, I thought I would be devastated to lose another two hours for nothing, and after some hesitations, I left home.

I was already walking home from the train station when I saw a text on my phone with a contact “maybe <her name>” (which meant that she mentioned her number in one of her emails). The message read: When are you planning to arrive?

We had a rather dramatic exchange of texts, and I frantically checked spam and trash, but there was no email found. We immediately agreed to communicate through texts in the future and agreed for me to come a week later. I felt horrible because I thought that it was all my fault, and if I was really committed to coming to the ODS, I should have either tried to find her cell number or gone to the ODS without confirmation. I felt that I was so sure (subconsciously) that it wouldn’t work again, that I was expecting this arrangement to fail. I am not sure whether I’ve explained it thoroughly, but I tried :).

Nevertheless, we agreed on November 14. I had an event I wanted to attend on that day (the Beat meeting), but I decided I had to break the curse of ODS events not happening. I confirmed on Wednesday evening by text, and then on Thursday there was another text: “There are going to be 2-4 people, how about we switch to dessert or just hanging out?”

I replied that it was OK and that I would pick desserts from Vanille. So, finally, I made it to ODS. The staff was amazing, everybody loved Vanille pastries (and it ended up being way more than four people in!). Usually, I do not like to hang out just for the sake of hanging out, but as it turned out, the youth wanted just to hang out and talk, and we all had a great time.

Now, I am very cautious, and I am not saying that it’s a success, because the last several months were very unpredictable. But one thing for sure – I do not want to give up on the Night Ministry.

Thoughts

I heard a comment the other day that can be rephrased as a standard appeal to Puritan ethics: people do not want their money taken away and redistributed. This means that at least some well-off people believe that anybody who is in a bad financial situation got there because they didn’t work hard enough, tried hard enough, or whatever.

A day before I heard this comment, I talked to my friend, who is a retired special ed teacher. She worked all her life in a most noble profession. Still, she doesn’t have enough retirement income and has to work part-time, not because she wants to do something, but because without this extra income, it would be difficult for her to make ends meet. And that’s where I have a problem with the “it’s all their own fault” statement. There are many professions, many jobs like this. And we need to raise taxes to pay teaches salaries and pensions. And if we reduce public education to a level low enough that people who can afford a private education would opt for it, this will completely eliminate the concept of “equal opportunities” (yes, we already have districts with low education quality, but we should put an effort into resolving these problems, not exacerbating them).

I didn’t even start on another topic: even if somebody “didn’t work hard enough” or “didn’t save enough” is it morally acceptable to leave them without support when they need it?

And a final note, which should have probablybeen the first one. I hear people saying that they chose “the lesser of two evils.” What I do not understand it how these “evils” can be compared in terms “more” or “less.” They are very distinct, I would say, the opposite evils, meaning that you either find Trump’s policies evil or Kamala’s policies evil, that are not comparable in my opinion, which makes me think that people who choose “the lesser evil” do not really look in-depth on what they are choosing.

But I might be wrong as usual.

Cards And Cookies

It’s that time of the year again! If I know you, IRL or virtually, this post is for you!

Do you want a Christmas card from me? Please let me know!

Do you want a box of my cookies? – Let me know!

Do you live in Chicagoland and want to bake and decorate with me? I will have an Open Cookie House on December 6, 7, and 8; please come!

You do not have to send me a card or cookies as a reciprocation unless you want!

I am ready to share the joy of the season:)

The Secret Garden in Theo

On Sunday, I went to see The Secret Garden at Theo Ubique. I love their Sunday scheduling – they start at 6 PM, so it’s not a matinerr which completely breaks your day, but also not too late (for me, all days of the week are the same in term of bedtime, so I always prefer the earlier start).

My friend with whom I went told me earlier that that was the only show she wanted to attend this season. I liked others as well, but I understand why she said so – it’s a lovely music and a beautiful story. And the production is perfect! As usual, I hope that they will post some videos from the show later, and I will be happy to share them!

A Night At The Museum

For Nadia’s seventh birthday, I gave her a Dozing with Dinos—a sleepover in the Field Museum. As anyone can imagine, I was equally excited to spend a night at the Field and wonder around all the exhibits as long as I wanted to.

It turned out that there was not that much time for free-roaming because the whole night was full of activities: we met with the scientists, saw the animals skinning in the lab, identified different smells and sounds, saw a 3-D movie about the T-Rex and did a scary storytime.

Our sleeping area was in the Great Dinosaur Hall, and I think it was the best place, although Nadia said that sleeping by the Sue T-Rex would be better (when I was ordering this package, there were no places by Sue available, but maybe next time!)

We packed our things in the morning, left them in the locker, and went for breakfast. The only thing that could have been done better was the food provided as a part of the package or rather some inaccurate information about it.
They said there would be a late-night snack, but they had different bags of chips, tea, and hot chocolate. They also said there would be a continental breakfast, but it was just an apple, a banana, and one mini muffin (plus juice/milk/tea/coffee). Thankfully, the museum bistro was open at 7-30 AM, so we didn’t go hungry!
By 9 AM, Anna and Kira came to the museum. I thought we would stick around for an hour or two at a maximum, but we stayed there for more than four more hours! It’s the longest time I ever spent in any museum!

In the evening, when we all set for dinner, Nadia said that the best thing about that day was the whole day, and the worst thing was that it came to the end 🙂

Oh, and one fun fact: according to my Health app, I climbed 25 flights of started on Friday, and 25 on Saturday!