Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

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Welcome to Hettie’s Reflections!

Hello! My name is Hettie, I was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and I emigrated to the United States in October 1996. I live in Palatine, IL and work in Chicago.

I’ve been very active in the Russian blogosphere, and my American friends keep asking me when I am going to tell my story in English. Well, the time has come.

I am going to write my story for my granddaughter Nadia, and for all my American friends, who has been so supportive through all these years, and hope that my children, Igor, Vlad and Anna will help me through this journey.

My Russian blog used to have “a lot of everything”, because first, I just like to write a little something every day, reflecting on everything happening in the world around me, and second – because I believe that people trust me more knowing me as a person. Everything I’ve done in my life so far, and everything I am doing every day, made me – and still making me the person I am.

This being said, although this blog is intended mostly to record our family history, there will be still “a lot of everything” here. However, for those who is interested in the history solely, I will paste all the links to the Hettie’s Timeline page, which will hopefully allow to read all these entries in a chronological order.

The links to my interviews and videos (mostly professional) will be pasted on this page, and also for those who is interested what I am doing in my professional life, feel free to check out my blog The World of Data.

My blog Hettie’s Cooking is hardly a cooking blog, at least I do not update it often. However, some of my legendary recipes, like “Mom’s soup”, can be found there.

Enjoy 🙂

DePaul Industry Night

On Wednesday, March 11, our non-profit Pairie Postgres participated in the  Business & Data Analytics Industry Night at DePaul University as a resource for students. I was pleasantly surprised that our communications with DePaul are deepening, and they actually do all they can to include us in any events we might be interested in. It was great to talk with students directly. Yes, it might feel like a very modest outcome: one student registered for our June conference, and one student emailed us to tell us he wants to volunteer, but it’s so much better than nothing (which we had before!).

Carlos, the only local Board member except for me, was able to join me, and another organization member, Robert, also joined us. We had a great time at the event and appreciate the opportunity to connect with students and share that learning about databases can benefit their future careers.

I saved the last copy of our book from being silently taken 🙂

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Just watched it at the Siskel Center – the theater was packed, and a significant part of the audience was not Russian-speaking. The English subtitles were OK – some nuances were definitely missing, but still quite accurate. They should have run the subtitles in the end, when they play a recording of “Broad and vast is our mighty country” – it’s not like every English speaker knows this song, and I think it’s important that during the time of a tightening oppressive regime they play “where man is gloriously free.”

The documentary is unimaginably depressing. Not only because of what exactly it shows, not only because the audience physically feels the pressure of the Russian propaganda machine, but also because of how Pasha chooses to be blind even after he left Russia: everything was fine before February 2022, and then all of a sudden…

As always, I didn’t read any reviews before watching, and now I see some interviews with Pasha, and I am oging to try to watch at least some of them (I have no idea when I find time, but…)

A New Laundry Basket

Can I post something “ordinary” once in a while? Back in January, when I was in Helsinki, Boris and I went to IKEA. Since the Schamburg IKEA is non-reachable by public transportation, we often check what’s new in Helsinki (yes, sometimes you need this “look and feel”), and then I take a picture of the label and check the availability in Schamburg, and then order online 🙂

What I love about this laundry basket is that it is tall, looks tidy, and occupies very little floor space. Before I got this basket, I had a laundry bag hanging on the closet door and a regular laundry basket on the closet floor. Both of them had less capacity than this basket, and also, I didn’t necessarily want to see my dirty laundry each time I open the closet :). I tried to squish as much as possible in the bag, and when it was time to bring the laundry to the washing machine, I would move everything to the basket and carry it. Lots of unnecessary moves, and lots of space taken. Now I am looking at this perfectly designed basket and thinking: why didn’t I get it five years ago?!

A Busy Monday

Monday ended up being another overloaded day. There was a lot to do at work (no missed workday goes unpunished!), and I also needed to visit our prospective conference site (planned for 2027). I loved it when I visited for the first time, and now that another Organizational committee member was in town, I wanted to show it to him.

He also loved it and shared my excitement, so I think we made up our minds for the next season, although we still need to make sure this year’s conference is a success 🙂

Later on Monday, I went to pick up the first batch of conference t-shirts. I’ve under-estimated how far the place was from the Roosevelt Red Line, so it took me way longer than I planned (and I still needed to see my mom afterwards).

Still, I am so happy that I could feel and touch them!

And here is a Prairie Postgres Elephant – our future speaker’s gift!

The best thing happened when I finally got home: a letter from the Illinois AG office informed me that our organization it finally officially registered and can solicit donations in the State of Illinois!

Daylight Time Change After a Sleepless Night

I had an overnight flight from LA, and it was also a day of switching to DST, which resulted in a 3-hour time change. With the flight lasting less than four hours, I slept so little that my Apple watch didn’t even scream at me, but made a sad face: bad nights happen!

Also, I didn’t realize that the CTA was doing something on the Red Line Lake station, so when I exited the Blue Line at Washington, and walked to the Red Line, I found everything closed and a CTA worker explaining to me that I needed to return to the Blue Line exit, get out to the street and walk to Wabash where the Red Line was rerouted for a day. And if I knew, I could just get off at the previous stop and transfer! Another 30 min without breakfast 😂

Finally, I got home, ate breakfast at 9:30 AM, started laundry, talked to Boris, visited my Mom, and went for a short bike ride. Yea, I know!!! But that was not it!

I had a ticket to the Drowsy Chaperone at Theo that night, and I was going to go there with my friend MaryAnn, so there was no question of not going.

Don’t take me wrong, I liked the show, it was something very unexpected, and very well done, but MaryAnn was crazy about the show, and kept telling me how much she liked it. And I was happy that she was happy 🙂

Unfortunately (and as always!), they do not have any pictures and videos from the show yet, because it was just a preview weekend, but I will update this post later!

Educational Track at SCaLE: Listening to John “maddog” Hall Talk

Listening to John “maddog” Hall at SCaLE x23

Talking To People at SCaLE

This conference was very productive: I reconnected with many of my existing professional and personal contacts and established many new connections. I know very well that out of ten people who express interest in my projects and my conference, not more than one will end up coming back to me or participating in my events. Still, I need to talk to everyone, because that’s the only way to find new partners and allies.

It was work. Both days at the conference were work and work. Today, I spent more than 10 hours emailing and messaging people solely about conference-related topics: sponsorship, volunteering, promotion, and participation. I’m tired. My head is heavy. But I am happy I’ve expanded my network, and that I did it in real-life, not following the LinkedIn algorithm :).

It’s insanely difficult, but I am building trust and recognition, and I hope that all of this contributes to community building.

Super-interesting Article About Biking In Chicago in the 1890s

Read how Chicago became the manufacturing hub of the nation’s bicycle industry — a city that produced a quarter of all U.S. bikes and claimed more than 200,000 riders at the height of the boom. It was also a place where women defied social expectations on two wheels, and where cycling clubs organized one of the country’s first powerful transportation lobbies.

Full article here.

At SCaLE in Pasadena

This year, I came to SCaLE for two days only, and I am busier than ever! It’s nice, warm, and sunny outside, but I was barely out both days, trying to catch up with a couple of dozen people, building new connections, and doing the outreach.

That’s me talking at the educational track! But overall, I talked to way more people!

I am still at the conference, taking a Red Eye flight back to Chicago tonight!

Tax Returns Reflections

I know that the title sounds weird, to put it mildly, but let me explain.

Financially, I had very different periods in my life, both very high and very low, both while living in Russia and in the USA. I frequently think about how much it has changed in my life, and what things money can or can’t buy. When I was sitting at the Lyric Opera watching Così fan Tutte, I remembered how I was watching this opera for the first time, many years ago, at the same Lyric Opera House, but from somewhere very high above. It was the same opera, with a similarly funny and cynical Despina, but I could barely see what was going on onstage, while this time I could see the singer’s facial expressions. And even this upper balcony ticket was not an ordinary thing back then.

So what about tax returns? After two turbulent tax seasons, when, due to some planning mistakes, I ended up owing taxes, I ended the 2025 tax year with a sizable surplus, largely due to my total donations amount. And it’s not only about me having more to give, but also about me knowing what can be tax-deductible.

During my first two or three years in the US, I was able to take the kids to the Field Museum or Aquarium only once or twice a year. And if I had bought a family membership back then, it would have paid off in two visits, but I never had enough money “right now” to make the purchase.

Moreover, what I didn’t know back then, and even later, was that all these memberships were tax-deductible, so there are even more savings which I never tried to utilize.

The same goes for different benefit events. Not only are you paying for a fancy dinner at the fundraiser, but you can also claim a tax deduction, and I take advantage of these opportunities very often. For the past two weeks, I was contemplating “to go – not to go” for the Night Ministry Gala. I usually go, but this year, since it’s the 50th anniversary, the event will be held in Gerardy (the same place as our corporate Christmas party), and it costs three times as much as usual. After looking at the price tag for the third time, I was about to say no when I realized this ticket would be tax-deductible, which switched me to the “why not”? Still thinking 🙂

Also, the advantage of “buying in bulk.” It’s not only about buying larger packages of food, which makes each unit cheaper, but it also applies to cultural events and entertainment. Subscription tickets are significantly cheaper than single tickets, but the one-time subscription price is out of reach for many, if not most, people. I remember what it took me when I bought a CSO subscription for the first time – the cheapest tickets in the house, the last row of the gallery!

I guess the moral of the story is that it’s great that many Chicago museums have free days, many have free access for SNAP recipients, and that anyone can borrow a free family museum pass for a week at the Chicago Public Library. But it’s definitely not enough.