Saturday Early Morning – it’s foggy!
Morning Biking
Saturday Early Morning – it’s foggy!
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.
What Are Saturdays For?
Yesterday was very hot, but today’s weather was going to be wild, so I tried to squeeze in as many out-of-the-house activities as possible. Some of my house guests objected, saying that they wouldn’t survive and that it would be even worse, so whatever I wanted to do with my guests this weekend had to be done on Saturday. It was great to spend Saturday doing fun stuff in the city instead of catching up with life as I do too often these days.
Here is how it went. As always, I started the day with a bike ride (a relatively short one, just an hour). Then I made breakfast: a baked apple pancake, scrambled eggs, and breakfast patties.
Then we went on the Architectural cruise. It was already burning hot by 10 AM, and Sonia could not possibly sit on the top deck for the whole duration of the tour, so I spent most of it sitting with her downstairs:). The rest of the party was entirely exhausted by the heat, but they still loved the views.
After the cruise, we cooled down in the Architectural Center
And then walked to the Art Institute because the Rayan Center was closed last week, and Sonia didn’t get a chance to do art.
And after that came Maggie Daley Park, and no matter how hot it was, those who wanted to do the climbing wall climbed, and those who wanted to explore Ship did so, and those who wanted to splash in the fountain, did so as well.
We finished the day at Acanto, and my highlight was a new dessert called lemoni. From the first glance, it looked like a lemon:
In the end, everyone agreed it was a great day!
Continue reading “What Are Saturdays For?”Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
Yesterday, I took my friends to see “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” at the Goodman Theater. Goodman rarely stages musicals, and when it does, they are priced way more reasonably than Broadway shows. I had four tickets left on my “Whenever Goodman” subscription, which gave me very good mezzanine seats – I do not think you can have the stage view as good as that in any of the Broadway theaters!
The show was spectacular! I always enjoy seeing the reaction of people experiencing an American musical live for the first time! I remember my own experience of feeling never-ending happiness following the perfect movements of the dances and enjoying every bit of music.
The pictures below are official photos of the show from the Goodman Theater website- enjoy!
WTTW Event
On Wednesday, Igor and I attended one more WTTW event in the FIRSTHAND: Homeless series. This event was dedicated to the migrant crisis. I was extremely disappointed with it. I had to leave to return to my guests, but Igor stayed to talk to the participants., soI might have more updates from him when we talk. My disappointment was mostly because I do not think this event achieved its purpose.
The purpose, as I see it, was to make more people aware of migrants’ challenges: why things are so difficult for them, what obstacles they never thought about, and why they are fleeing their countries in the first place. None of these questions were answered. To be honest, I do not even think the documentary covered “homelessness” specifically. There are multiple (too many) challenges these people face, and my feeling was that the questions of getting work permits and enrolling kids in schools took preference, and the horrific housing crisis was sort of left on the back burner. (Waiting for Igor’s comments on that).
Porches Painting And Planting
I started to write this post two months ago, but then things became more interesting, and I held off on posting it. Now, the whole process is finally in progress, so I can at least report on the current status.
How it started. Last year, there were talks about painting porches, but they died away with no outcome. I planted everything I wanted to plant, and life was happy. This spring, I planned to hang up my flower baskets while Boris was here in April because it’s a job for two people. But shortly before he came, we received a notice from our association that this season, we are definitely having the porches painted and repaired, so “please do not take the deck furniture out and do not plant anything; we hope to be done in May.”
How did it turn out. I didn’t plant anything, but my furniture is always on the deck, just covered for winter. At the beginning of May, I started to suspect that it would not happen in May. In mid-May, they told us that they chose contractors. At that point, I decided that I would be planting, and when my girls were here during the first weekend of June, we went to the Windy City Garden Center. Right then, another message arrived stating that the work would begin “after the holidays.” This was a total crush because my friends from Finland would arrive just before July 4, which would mean that they would have this construction for the whole duration of their stay! Also, I felt so miserable without the plants that I decided that I would be happy even if they would hang on there for a month!
Development. Since then, the dates have shifted multiple times. Finally, this week, the work began. I know that my tier won’t be started for at least three more weeks. That means that my flowers will last for two months! My only regret is that I listened to the “do not plant” statement and wasted almost a month!
My guests are saying that so far, it was not that noisy and they can survive, so I hope it will be all OK!
Work And More Work
I took two more days off to spend time with my friends and to show them around. While I was off, I occasionally looked at work Slack and saw that work was accumulating and that several things required my attention. Still, I decided not to work and not to interfere until I was back.
As a result, today, I came to the office at 7 AM and left at 5:20 PM, and the only breaks I had were for breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria. One of these days when your butt hurts from sitting! And there were still more things to do.
And I believe I didn’t mention that my talk was accepted for PG Day UK! Actually, one talk was accepted, and another is on the reserve list, which means that I need to prepare both! I am excited and nervous :). And I do no know where I can find time for that!
Next week, I am hosting Chicago PUG, and I already have over fifty RSVPs, so it might be yet another eight RSVPs meetup, and once again, I am excited and scared. Life is good, but one life is definitely not enough!
Showing The Best Of Rogers Park
I had a total of five days off work, including two vacation days I took on July 3 and 5 to help my friends feel at home and show them all of the Rogers Park highlights. I think I succeeded: they love it here!
We went to the beach several times (actually, at least twice, they went without me).
On July 4, we went to look at the Artists of the Wall:
We went to Devon Market and Morse Market (and to get to the former one, I made sure that all of them had a bike they could ride. My friend Natasha didn’t ride a bike for several years, and she never did biking in the street traffic. I could understand her anxiety – I felt the same way when I first biked in Rogers Park, but she survived :).
This morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup:
And then to the Glenwood market, where we got purple and yellow beans, Benison bakery pastries, Mickii’s cobblers, flowers, and tart cherries. And Natasha got herself a new neckless, and then we all got different flavors of popsicles.
And then we went to the Art Institute, where, to my deepest disappointment, we found the Ryan Canter closed because of the NASCAR race – don’t ask what it has to do with that! However, Sonia compensated this loss with another round of slashes in the Crown Fountain:
Tomorrow, I will be back to work, but I think my friends will find their way around and things to do!
Being A Proud Chicagoan…
I am a proud Chicagoan. I love our city and I love showing all the best things to out-of-town visitors. I think our city is special and not like others. Being a proud Chicagoan comes with a very clear understanding that our city has many problems and that there are many things that are done better elsewhere.
That being said, there were quiet rumors that panhandlers and the homeless would be removed from State Street as a part of “getting ready for the summer influx of tourists.” When I was in the Loop on July 4, I realized that it was also “do not spoil the Independence Day celebration and do not expose the city problems on that day.” I do not know (and I would be curious to know) what it took to remove people from the streets, but apparently something was done. And I am not happy of that way of solving problems. Should I be? Should I be happy about the city looking less problematic than it is?…
Aquarium
Today, we visited the Aquarium. I love this museum, and I reserved the tickets immediately after knowing my friends were coming. This was a great idea since the Aquarium was sold out for the day!
What I completely forgot (or ignored) was that this weekend is a NASCAR weekend. Although the races are happening during the weekend, the street closures started a week before (and would still be there the week after). Last night, I tried to figure out what exactly would be opened and closed, but without any luck.
That being said, getting there was quite an adventure, and Sonia (the youngest child and my goddaughter) was screaming that she couldn’t go anymore, but when we finally got to the Aquarium, all the hardships were forgotten! I love when people love the Aquarium and when they not just quickly browse the exhibits but actually pay attention to all of them, so it was a real joy!
We spent five hours in the Aquarium, and that’s only because we skipped the show and a big portion of it is closed for renovation. And a way back seemed not as bad!
TIME Magazine: The Least Amount of Sleep
As my friends can imagine, I have an opinion on that subject! Time Magazine article What’s the Least Amount of Sleep You Need to Get? suggests that only people with a very rare genetic anomaly can function on less than 6.5 hours of sleep and that, in general, people who sleep for less than 7 hours for more than a couple of days incur serious health consequences. I do not know how to argue all this research except by saying that it does work differently for me. As usual, the full text is below.
Continue reading “TIME Magazine: The Least Amount of Sleep”
Hettie's Reflections 