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 🙂

***

Dinner at ODS last Wednesday. One of many advantages of Ferris location: I am across from Target on State, and the Blue Line stop is also nearby, so it takes me no time to pick up anything they didn’t purchase, or purchased in not enough quantities, like this time, when Ms. N. texted me that there was not enough pepperoni for pizza.

It turned out that many other toppings were missing, but we decided to work with what we had, and it turned out fine. One of the new residents, M., liked to cook, and she was in the kitchen when I came. We clicked right away, which almost never happens with female residents. Very soft-spoken, she still asked me nonstop about my favorite dishes and whether I’d ever cooked or tried this or that, and I said I want to make one of her recipes next time (but now it will take weeks again to schedule!).

So we were making pizzas and talking, and after we ate, I stopped to chat with one of the residents I talked to last time. It turned out he was waiting for me to start talking, and we had a long, deep conversation again. That’s why I keep coming.

The next morning, Ms. N. texted me and thanked me for coming, which reminded me again that I am there for the staff as much as for residents.

I sent an email with my next availability, and I have no idea how long it will take to schedule something…

Now, My Life Is Complete

I started my new job on October 26, just several hours after I returned from Europe. I wanted this job more than any other jobs I was interviewing for and/or even briefly considered. However, I was hoping to hear back from someone else.

On Wednesday afternoon, I finally received a message I had been waiting for three weeks: yes, you can start coming to Ferris, and we will discuss everything when you are here. I knew that it “should have happened,” because a resident agreement landed in my Inbox two weeks earlier along with the WiFi login, but I was waiting for this “you can come.”

I’ve admired everything that’s been going on at Ferris since I stepped in there for the first time in March, and I feel lucky to be part of it and to contribute my ideas to what is being developed there. It feels dreamy each time I walk in. I am surrounded by the smartest people, both at my job and at Ferris, and I can’t believe I lived without meaningful conversations for so long. I just hope that things will stay the way they are now. I am definitely “in the right room.”

In Milwaukee

Last Sunday, I was in Milwaukee visiting Anna’s family. There was no particular reason for this visit except that I really missed everyone. I didn’t see Anna since Labor Day, and I didn’t see everyone else since the Theater camp in August.

The weather was gorgeous and really warm and summer-like until later in the afternoon. In the morning, Nadia had the last soccer game of the season, and after lunch, we got on the bikes. Anna on her cargo bike with Kira, me on Anna’s friend’s bike, Kira’s friend on her bike, plus Nadia on her bike on the way back.

The girls didn’t slow us down a bit and biked at 13 mph all the way, and all the way back (4 miles each way). I was super impressed. And it was so nice to be in nature.

Midterms

I am still going through my after-conference and “three jobs at the same time” backlog, and my posts appear several days later than they should. It’s Thursday evening, and I still didn’t post anything about the Blue Night! Daniel Bliss’ Election Watch party was literally steps away from my house, and I even saw him walking toward Jarvis Tavern when I was coming home, but several hundred emails in my inbox haunted me, so I opted to be an observer :). Maybe I should have just let things go, forget about all To-Do lists and go to the party. It would be nice to be surrounded by enthusiastic like-minded people, and share the joy of victory, but I didn’t…

Still, I hardly slept, and many other people as well. Anna and I exchanged text messages shortly after 5 AM Wednesday morning. It’s hard to believe it happened!!! We hoped, and we hoped, and we did all we could, but still, the Blue Firework exceeded all expectations!

I believe that the most important take-away is that the power of the people makes it happen! Republicans spent more money during this campaign, in some cases – way more, but money doesn’t vote, people do! And life proved it again!

I am glad that all newly elected officials are talking about doing work, not retaliation, about practical ways of helping people right now. I am also extremely happy that Republican’s redistricting effort didn’t work at all! And I am satisfied that Trump isn’t even trying to contest the election result.

I am happy. And ready to work.

The photos below were taken in Chicago Loop midday Tuesday. I was surprised with how many irresponsible people left the voting to the very last moment, but still – we won!



Going To The Theater On Halloween Night

I really wanted to see the Adirondack Chair Circle at Steppenwolf, but because I was away most of October, the only time I could go was on Halloween night 😂. I got two tickets, hoping that somebody would accompany me – the play sounded so interesting – but unfortunately, that night was off limits for everyone for this or that reason. I decided that my money is going to support Steppenwolf anyway, and went alone.

I regretted my decision to go until the intermission, and let me tell you why. Firstly, that was my first day off after I returned from Europe, and the week was full to the brim with events, new work, new people, and I also had a gigantic backlog related to Prairie and PG DATA. And I was going to be in Milwaukee on Sunday, so that was the only day I could catch up on things. That being said, I left the house not too late, but very close to it :). And it was a Halloween night!

That’s my sixth year in Rogers Park, but I guess it was the first time I was out on that night, and it was Saturday, and the weather was nice! All these conditions together made it an absolutely surreal experience. There were adults in costumes everywhere, and most of the costumes were quite provocative. The Red Line train was hopelessly delayed. I saw the lights at Howard, but nothing was moving. Finally, when the train reached Jarvix, it was packed with all the weird creatures you can and can’t imagine! You only had a choice between bunny ears or bull horns, between silver helmets and golden capes, but there was not a single car without “dark forces”.

I was late. Maybe the first time in my life, I was late to the theater, and the usher let me sit outside and watch the play on the screen until there was an appropriate moment. I was miserable. I thought I should get up and leave, especially because it was difficult to understand the words – the camera was somewhere on top, and if I had been on time, I would have had a first-row seat. Finally, she let me in, but told me not to go down to my seat, but to the seat in the middle she pointed me to. I was still upset about missing the beginning and about my seating, and for the twentieth time thought I should have stayed at home. During the intermission, I was able to get ot my seat, and everything changed! Finally, I was absorbed into the story of the controversy of book banning in the school libraries. Everyone was great, but especially the Crow – a stunning performance by David Darrow. And once again, there was a discussion planned after the performance, but I didn’t feel I could last for another forty minutes, so I left (still regretting that I can’t go without any sleep at all!)

All the photos and videos are from the Steppenwolf website. I know that photos do not tell much for a play like that, but at least something.

Last Week’s Activities: Don Giovanni

It was a brilliant performance: amazing voices, set, costumes, and the whole show were impeccable. My neighbor, with whom I attended, was not familiar with the opera, so it was a new discovery for her. I thought that I knew it very well (we even studied it at school), but, as with many other classical operas, I found that in the Soviet Union, we only knew an abridged version. I still do not understand why all the dialogue was cut from all the operas! When you have dialogue, everything starts to make sense! The full-length opera is super long, but we had an amazing time!

Last Week’s Activities: Crime and Punishment In America

I have too much life again; putting life on pause didn’t exactly work, so I’ll briefly mention what else I was doing last week.

On Thursday, I went to the WTTW event, Crime and Punishment in America – A WTTW Screening and Community Conversation. WTTW launched a new series about the history of the American criminal justice system, from the origins of prisons and policing to our continued fascination with crime, and how it influences the media, economics, and politics. Unfortunately (possibly because of a different location of the screening – Malcolm X College), there were not that many people in the audience, and the organizers postponed the start of the event for almost twenty minutes, hoping that more people would come.

It’s honestly too bad that there were so few people, because the topic is significant, and the panel included, along with the producer of the documentary, Lynn Novick and prof. Kevin Boyle, Nicholas Crayton, who was incarcerated at 18 on murder changes and was sentensed to 24 years in prison. For me, him talking about life he lives after being reliased, what are his legal obligations, what he is permanently banned from, was yet another eye -opener. He was previosly featured in the Firsthand: Life After Prison project, and now I want to watch it.

During the event, we watched a 40-min compilation of all four films, and below is a short trailer.

Everything started later, and kept going way after 8PM, so, unfortunately, I had to leave. It was a very long day!

Thursday Escorting

My Thursday started with an early escorting shift. I was away for more than two weeks, and since I was just back and had just started a new job, I was unsure whether I could fit in escorting. But then I learned that I could come to the coworking space (more on that later), which meant I would start my workday at a normal time, and the problem was solved.

It turned out that several unexpected things happened while I was away, including a new brick wall in place of the south exit of Ogilvie Station (if I had known, I would have sent my Starbucks order to the Clinton location), and I was a bit late. By the time I approached the corner of W.Washington and DesPlains, a crowd of antis was already there.

It quickly turned into one of those days when there are way fewer of “us” than “them”, and we have to be very fast to get to the patients’ cars first and make sure we provide protection and have time to notify patients that they can be filmed. And, to be honest, in general, it feels horrible when we are twice outnumbered, and they are so loud and confident. It totally feels like the world is going backward.

They take position very close to the clinic entrance
And they put their people on the other side of the street by the parking lot, to contact patiencts there
And they mounting a camera to film patients
.. but we are out there!

Are You A Teacher?

On Thursday, I was going to an early-morning escorting shift. When I entered the car at Jarvis, an older man sitting diagonally from where I headed asked me something. I have to admit, shamefully, that, given the time (6:05 AM) and the location, I expected him to be one of those folks who spend nights on CTA and thought he would be catching up on sleep, but he was wide awake and asked me something. I turned to him to hear better what he was asking.

— Are you a teacher?

I paused for a brief second. Am I?

— Oh, I used to be a teacher! Not anymore, but you know, once a teacher – forever a teacher.

— I thought so! And what did you teach when you were a teacher?

— Math!

— Mathematics?

— Yes, and later some information technologies.

— Or, so you were a high school math teacher? Calculus and such, not just elementary math!

— Yes!

— And what are you doing now?

That question made me pause for a little bit longer.

— Well, I am still doing information technology. Information management. Databases.

— Oh, so you keep our information safe from all these agents?

— That as well, among other things.

— Nice! I have teachers in my family; that’s why I figured it out right away!

He kept going, but by that time it became really loud in the car, since we started passing a noisy area. I knew he was eager to continue the conversation, but with my limited comprehension of AAVE and the increasing noise, I could only smile and nod, so he wished me well and, after “nice talking to you,” moved back.

The CTA at 6 AM! Who would’ve thought!

Interviewing

To be fair, it was the first time in my life that I was officially without a job and officially made myself available on LinkedIn. Most likely, that was a mistake. Most likely, I should have patiently waited for the first company I started talking to to respond. But as everyone knows, patience is not my virtue :). Also, my wealth manager kept asking me how much I would earn a month from my part-time job, and I couldn’t tell him because my onboarding took forever. Again, I probably shouldn’t have started this part-time, but it is what it is, and now I can’t undo what I started.

As I mentioned, the place where I wanted to be most said that they liked me, but now they need someone “more operational “, which is the theme I get all the time through my life, and most of the time, people indeed come back to me in a month or two, but this time, I didn’t have extra time, and more importantly, I was absolutely sure they needed me immediately:), so I kept talking to them. At the same time, since I made myself available, people started to reach out. There were some calls with unacceptably low pay rates, and some with very high rates from the industry I’d just left. There were several “usual suspects“, some interesting and some not. At some point, as I was in different stages of interviewing with six different companies at the same time, it started to wear me down.

I didn’t get any advantage of not working, because I was constantly in the process of interviewing:) or scheduling interviews. By the beginning of October, three companies remained, including the one I started talking to in August and really liked. Another company appeared later than the others, but it looked extremely interesting. Unfortunately, they were very slow in scheduling. I emailed and asked whether they were still interested in talking to me. They said yes, but scheduled an interview for ten days later. Meanwhile, the third company told me there would be several technical interviews, 75 minutes each, and that they would start scheduling.

At that point, I was extremely tired of the whole process. Fortunately, my favorite company came with an offer, which I happily accepted.

Two days later, another super-interesting company reached out, but it was already too late. Overall, the whole process was very different from what I’d expected after reading LinkedIn for several months :). Granted, there were several recruiters who were asking whether I could program in Python and said that that was one of the requirements. My answer was that I am always happy to learn what’s needed, but if they consider a lack of Python skills a showstopper, that wasn’t the right position for me. However, nobody asked me about AI usage, and each company with which I started the actual process needed my brain, not an artificial one :).

This affirms my belief in progress and the overall sanity of humanity.