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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 🙂

Biking In The Morning Fog

Watching ‘One Day In The Life Of Andrei Arsenevich”

Yesterday was Igor’s birthday, and we went together to watch One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich, Chris Marker’s documentary about the last days of Andrei Tarkovsky, whose full retrospective ran through September at the Siskel Center.

I really-really liked it. I find it difficult to say “I enjoyed it,” because it shows the last days of a terminally ill person, but it is really remarkable how positive Tarkovsky looks and sounds even when he can hardly lift his head off the pillows. The documentary included footage of him filming his last picture, The Sacrifice, and this scene alone told me more about him as an artist and as a person than I ever knew.

The documentary cites Pasternak, who apparently told Tarkovsky early in his career that he would make seven films. “Only seven?” asked Tarkovsky. “Yes, but the good ones!” replied Pasternak. And that’s exactly how many films he made, not counting his school works. Also, it mentions Tarkovsky’s fascination with Leonardo Da Vinci (which I share), and I thought that that’s something they had in common: Leonardo produced very few paintings during his long life, but each is a masterpiece. Isn’t it true about Tarkovsky’s films?!

Mom’s Updates

At the beginning of September, I made another attempt to file for my mom’s SSI. Last time, we were told we could try again in July 2026, but July and August were two super-stressful months, plus my mom’s internet saga, plus fixing here access to the Social Security portal.

Finally, we scheduled the phone appointment, and miraculously, the same inspector who was handling our case two years ago was assigned to us again. I almost cried when I heard her name! Because she was already completely aware of our situation, everything went fast and smoothly, and a week later, my mom was granted SSI. Less than I hoped, but still something. Her housing situation didn’t improve; I tried writing to our Alderwoman, but they told me they can’t help. I am going to file for cash assistance from the State (we couldn’t do this until we had a decision on her SSI).

My mom didn’t understand what had happened and kept asking whether it meant that they would take her “food card” away, so I assured her that it was in addition, not instead, but I do not think she believed me. Her first payment should come on September 30, and I hope that all will be well!

Morning Biking

You never know how long you will be able to keep biking in the morning, but so far – let each of these mornings be blessed!

Here, a rising sun reflects in the building’s class windows on Lakeshore Drive, while the (almost) full moon is still visible. The sun is rising behind me.

Shostakovich’s Fourth

On Thursday, my neighbor and I went to our first CSO concert of the season. Klaus Makela, still a Director-designee, opened it with Sibelius’s 7th and Shostakovich’s 4th. Hearing Shostakovich’s 4th for the first time in my life and being completely unprepared for what I was about to listen to was so shocking that, several days later, I am still processing what I heard.

I didn’t know the story about this symphony, how it was created, and how the premiere was withdrawn (surprisingly so, because I heard so many details about Shostakovich’s reaction to the infamous Pravda editorial), and now I am trying to place in time his phone conversation with Stalin relative to writing and rehearsing of the 4th Symphony.

According to my grandmother, Stalin told him: “You should compose marches, young man, do you hear me? Marches! Our people want to march, and they have to music to march to!” (For the sake of my Russian -speaking friends, the exact wording was: “Марши надо писать, молодой человек, марши! Народ хочет маршировать, а не подо что!”

You can read the story of the 4th Symphony withdrawal, the hiding of the manuscript, and the first performance in Moscow in 1961. What I am wondering is how in the world Shostakovich could think that it would be possible to perform it?! After the above-mentioned article in Pravda. How?! I talked to Boris about it, and he said: and how could the rest of his music be performed? But I still think that the 4th Symphony is something incomparable with any other of Shostakovich’s works. So bold. So powerful. So full of grotesque and bitter irony.

I am now listening to the recording, trying to capture all of the details of Part III, because I definitely missed a lot during the concert, completely taken away by evolving havoc :).

Repost: “Bombshell”

It was incredibly interesting! Thank you rmichaelroman!

“Bombshell”

Goodman: The Attic

It was a last-minute idea: I hadn’t been to Goodman in a while, saw the show was extended, there was one free seat in the second row, and I had a discount code from my other subscription. And it was about the circus, about trapeze artists, and I love the circus.

It was beautiful, and the artists were above and beyond; however, to be completely honest, the story itself was not as moving as I expected, so maybe I could use this time more productively. Beautiful though, can’t deny that.

Photos and videos are from the Goodman Theater website.

COBRA, And What To Do About It

Before my separation from my previous firm, I had only one experience with COBRA, and I didn’t like it, however, similar to last time, this time I didn’t have other options: I was terminated without any notice and didn’t have any upcoming employment. That being said, the fact that my previous firm was going to pay my COBRA for the first four months was a relief.

Everything looked easy because I just needed to go to the COBRA provider website and enroll. I enrolled, but the website didn’t know anything about my former employer paying for my COBRA, and nothing changed several days later. I emailed my former HR, but nobody replied. A couple of days later, I received a note in the mail saying that because nobody paid the COBRA premium, my coverage couldn’t be reinstated.

I emailed my former HR again, and they said that they just paid, and everything should be fine. I logged in to my COBRA provider website, and it indeed indicated that the payments were made. However, the Blue Cross website was still insisting that my insurance was terminated.

On top of that, I actually needed to go to the doctor because my back/left leg started to hurt, and by September 17, it hurt really badly, so I couldn’t stand or walk without the pain. A strong painkiller I had for situations like that didn’t help, and in general, I felt the pain was more severe than previous relapses.

No appointments were available with my primary, and they suggested I go to another office to see another doctor in the same network. Then the scheduling center couldn’t find my insurance, as expected, and my assurances that COBRA would apply retroactively didn’t work. I told them that I would self-pay, got an appointment, paid $145, got another painkiller prescription, an X-ray referral, and a referral to an ortho specialist. A half-hour later, the scheduling service told me they couldn’t send a referral because my coverage wasn’t reinstated, and they told me to call when it was.

I returned home, took a deep breath, and called PT Solutions, which is a Haven on Earth and where Cori does his magic. I asked whether there could be any time that afternoon Cori could see me, and they found a slot. I came in and explained all about COBRA and being in between, and they were genuinely sorry and asked whether it was OK to charge me $35 (do not ask! I do not understand how they can charge a co-pay without insurance, but I am telling you, it’s a Heaven on Earth right here, in Rogers Park!). And Cori examined me and told me that there is no new injury; it’s all in my back, which reacted to the stress in such a way. He made some manipulations and showed me some exercises, and told me to come back on Monday if it didn’t help.

I have been doing all these exercises at least twice a day every day, and although I am not completely out of it, things have definitely improved.

I spent the next two days calling the COBRA provider (who said everything was OK and that they would notify Blue Cross, and insurance would be retroactively applied) and calling Blue Cross, who said they received nothing. On Wednesday, a Blue Cross representative called me and asked me to call COBRA again because he had already called them multiple times and verified the email address where they should have sent a notification, and it’s still not coming.

Finally, on Thursday morning, I logged into my Blue Cross account and didn’t see the red note on it. I couldn’t believe it was over, so I called them to verify, and they confirmed. However, I still had to ask them to reprocess a dental claim from September 2 (they won’t do it automatically), and I also have to file a claim for my out-of-pocket manually…

Summary:

Why there are so many parasites around healthcare?!
The rest of the world is normal in comparison to us
There are some angels around us, especially in Rogers Park

And almost forgot: after I made sure that my insurance was reinstated, I immediately signed up for COVID and Flu shots, and got both of them today, so now I am ready to travel!

TIME Magazine: The Right To Disconnect

Original article here. Couldn’t agree more.

Continue reading →

Cultural Events

Last week marked the opening of the new theater season. So far, I attended the following events;

The Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas concert at the Guarneri Hall. It was good (the pianist, Adam Neiman, was excellent), but the lecture before the concert was unnecessarily long and not very informative. I have a feeling that everyone was just waiting for the speaker to be done and to listen to the music. Also, because of that lecture, the concert ended later than scheduled
Dirty Dancing at Nederlander Theater. I never saw the movie, so I couldn’t appreciate all of the details my neighbor was admiring, but I liked the music, the acting, and how the dances were staged. Not out of this world, but really nice.

Liliom – John Neumeier’s ballet at Joffrey. The libretto is based on the play Liliom, which was also the basis of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. Great, as always 🙂 (well, so far, the only ballet I didn’t like much was Eugene Onegin)