On family history, parenting, education, social issues and more
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.
When I was in Ann Arbor, Lena and I visited the Artisan Market, and I put my eye on a fruit bowl.
I couldn’t tell what was so special about it except that the colors agreed with some of my tableware. Several bowls were made by the same artist. The colors of all of them were very similar, but I chose the one you can see in the photo below because of the combination of the size and the color.
The way it blended into my dining room exceeded my expectations. Wouldn’t you agree it’s “almost Cezanne”?!
Igor was at Union Park on the last day of the DNC and took lots of pictures. Usually, I post the link to his album and also post selected photos in my blog, but this time, I do not want to post any. Here is a link you can check out. And if you click it, you’ll probably realize why there are no pictures here.
I always strive to present an objective picture, and this time, an objective picture is not appealing: I do not want to multiply any Palestinian propaganda here. If you do not see these people and their posters, you might think there is some truth in what they say. But if you just take a look, there will be no mistake. That proves my point that these days, anybody who agitates people against Harris is an enemy of good. I do not know how else to put it – it literally means that this individual is on the dark side of things. And since I know that Igor captures such events with all possible objectivity, I can tell that there were way more supporters of the Palestinian extremists than anybody else. Ukrainians and their supporters, pro-choice activists and pro-life activists, communists, and socialists, all of them combined, made a lesser crowd than pro-Palestinian protesters. And I can’t get over it.
On a separate (but still DNC-related) topic, there were lots of comments about “CTA has done a great job keeping the stations clean.” I do not disagree with that; it was hard not to notice the unusual cleanliness. However, the immediate questions are: 1) why does it have to be a convention to make this change? 2) what did it cost in terms of time, labor, etc? I do not like shows like this, and I genuinely want these questions to be answered.
There were tons of things we could do and wanted to do over this weekend, but it was not even remotely possible to fit everything in, so I suggested a couple revisions to our plans to make sure we do what’s most important for us and not rush. We ended up doing only two things today: the beach and Aquarium. Both Anna and I felt we didn’t do enough beach time on Saturday (partially because both she and I had to take calls), and Annd hardly had any beach time this summer, so we decided to skip the market and all other potential morning activities and to spend more time at the beach. Then, we took an Uber to the Aquarium and left all the luggage in a locker.
For her birthday, I gave Anna a Beluga encounter experience at the Aquarium, which ended up being a two-hour thing, and Anna said it was “one of the best things she had ever done.” (Now I want to do it myself!)
I just realized I didn’t hit “publish” on yesterday’s post. And I know why I didn’t – I wanted to add that for the third year in a row, on Vlad and Anna’s birthday, I think not about the last Russian revolution which was happening when they were born, but about Ukraine Independence Day, and the war, and about everything my generation didn’t do back then. Then I decided that I would write a separate post about it, and then I didn’t press “Post.”
The birthday was yesterday. Today, we just did things together: we went to the beach, had a post-birthday lunch, and then went to Chalk Howard, decorated our square and looked at how others decorated their’s.
The number of people on the beach was insane:
I was glad that we camped in the part which is usually less crowded because there are small rocks in the water. We had a great time and a lot of space around us. And Chalk Howard was a blast, as always.
Our square – I think next year I will buy two or three squares to accommodate all the art our family can create:) Anna reads Igor’s birthday card
Today, my twins turned thirty-three, and I have no idea when it happened 🙂 I even checked my calculation several times to ensure I was right!
Every year, on the day they are born, I tell myself and the rest of the world that having them was the best decision I ever made. Their presence in my life drove many of my decisions, which would have been drastically different otherwise.
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This week, I listened to “Moral Decision Making,” one of the Audible Great courses. Once again, the lecturer explained that what Boris and I did thirty-six years ago was completely and unquestionably morally wrong—not like I didn’t know it before. But that was the best thing that happened to both him and me. Not only because there won’t be Vlad and Anna otherwise but also because even thirty-six years later, I smile each time I think about him, and he smiles each time he thinks about me. And this is the most impossible thing in the world, which never happens :).
I was not in the office that only day when the actual clash with police happened. And yes, it was indeed right by our office, this only serious one. The pictures made by a photographer whom I know look horrific. To be clear, I have no pity for these pro-palestinian demonstrators. I think the way they are acting, the slogans they chant, and the posters they carry – all do a great disservice to everybody, including themselves. I do not even want to copy the pictures I saw. On the one hand, they look a lot like Soviet propaganda from the 1970s: police in a capitalist country assault the workers fighting for their rights. On the other hand, the posters which protesters carry, tell a different story.
Anyway, it was a huge mess, and over 50 people were arrested (and again, I have no pity). But since it happened literally in from of our office (the Israely consulate is located on the thrid floor of the train station) many people in the office were scared, and on Wednesday and Thursday, even fewer people were in the office.
Today, one of my co-workers told me that his friend who works for Chicago Police told him that there would be even worse tonight, so if I was staying late… I told him that I have a journalist son who has a little bit different information, and I was right. I still do not have details from Igor from the Union Park, and possibly he will blog about details himself.
I only took some pictures when I was walking around Monday night waiting for the Planned Parenthood fundraiser to start.
Finally, I went to reception.
It was crowded, as you can see, and loud, as you can imagine.
From the official event photo gallery
Also, it was scheduled very late, and the talks started even later, because the speakers couldn’t get from the United Center to Carnival, where reception took place. I didn’t see a single person I would know (although the guest list promised some familiar faces). I left at ten, because otherwise, I won’t have even five hours of sleep, and before I left, one guy started to hit on me (out of all events in the world, at the Planned Parenthood event!). Now I think that it would be better if I would just donate money and not show up!
One positive thing: I wore a dress which I bought for Vlad’s wedding, and ended up not wearing, but liked it enough not to return to the store. So here is it:
I have been a community solar farm subscriber for over four years, and I couldn’t be happier about it – not only with the environmental impact but also with significantly lower electric bills. Since the time I subscribed, I have orgotten about the concept of “summer peaks.”
The savings work the following way: Nexamp bills me the price of electricity and sends my credits to ComEd, which subtracts them from my ComEd bill. The problem started at the end of February when ComEd switched to a new billing system and changed all account numbers. Somehow, they forgot to include Nexamp into this conversion process, and it took several months to resolve the issue. Finally about a month ago Nexamp informed their subscribers that the issue was finally resolved. They warned us that we “will receive a gigantic bill” from Mexamp, but no worries, it’s for all these missing months. They also suggested that we should request an immediate refund from ComEd, instead of waiting for them to adjust their bills with our credits.
I decided not to do anything and just wait until ComEd will adjust all the credits. It turned out that is was the right decision! The “gigantic bill” was $48, which I just paid, and ComEd had already sent me two $0 bills. 🙃 And that’s for two months with the hottest temperatures outside. I am wondering whether they will bill me something in September
On Sunday, August 21, we spend the whole day in Ann Arbor. Lena suggested an early morning walk to the Greenview Nature Area, and it was a total delight!
Several more things are left from last weekend’s trip to Michigan. We had two great positive experiences in Detroit: Michigan Central and Ford Plant, and one-and-a-half bad experiences. A “half-experience” was that, once again, it appeared to be challenging to find any relatively fast and decent quality food, and one really bad – it appeared to be impossible to find a coffee place in the afternoon. I ended up having the second coffee of the day when we returned to Lena’s place.
On Sunday, we stayed in Ann Arbor and spent most of the day in the Downtown area. Lena was sure that coffee wouldn’t be a problem there, but the place where we stopped to get coffee turned out to be really bad. Lena went back to the coffee shop and asked for a new one, but it was only marginally better.
Finally, Lena spotted Roos Roaster and said that they should be good. When we entered, I told a barista that I had to have one positive coffee experience and what he would recommend. He recommended a long, and it was perfect.
Both I and the reputation of Ann Arbor were saved!
Hettie's Reflections 