Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

Why I Don’t Like Remote Work

I like flexibility; I always liked the option of being able to work remotely, but not the idea of working remotely full-time. This WBEZ podcast mentions some of the issues which are important to me regarding working from home. If I would be honest with myself, I have to admit that the most important factor for me is a relatively small and seemingly unimportant thing – the lack of physical movement when you work from home.

A funny story is that twenty years ago, it was just the opposite: when I worked from home, I had the option of going biking during the lunch break, and I didn’t have to time my morning workout to make sure I was not late for the train. Back then, working from home meant more physical activity, and now it’s the opposite.

When it comes strictly to work, I know that 1) you can be very efficient while being remote;2) I had exceptionally successful emote projects; 3) you can have social interactions working remotely. But you can’t seamlessly incorporate move moving into your everyday life.

… and yes, there is nothing better than whiteboarding!

A Long Bike Ride

The longest bike ride of this season so far, 25.34 miles. For Bike the Drive, I signed up for a 30 miles challenge, but I should also add about 3 miles to get from my house to the official start and 3 miles back :). I will have at least two stops on the way, including the breakfast, so I am pretty sure I can make it with no problem. Today was not a stretch.

Continue reading “A Long Bike Ride” →

Lion’s Den Forest Preserve

I spent a day in Milwaukee with my girls, and at my request to do some nature, we went to Lion’s Den Forest Preserve. It was amazing! The best thing I could imagine, and the thing which is impossible in Illinois: both the Lake and the Nature preserve in one place! I took tons of pictures, although I fully understand that the pictures don’t convey the true beauty of the bluff. As Anna put it: that’s how Lake Michigan looked before the white people came. Breathtaking views!

Continue reading “Lion’s Den Forest Preserve” →

Another Crazy Week Weather

One thing is for sure – Independence Day was perfect weather-wise. My friends visited Chicago during the holiday week. They stayed in a hotel on the Near North, and I volunteered to give them a city tour on July 4 (having that most of the museums were closed anyway). It turned out that not only museums were closed! We could not get in neither Chicago Cultural Center, nor Rookery building Foye, nor Chicago Fine Arts Building.

Nevertheless, we had a great walk around the city in a perfect weather, and then I took then for the Brown Line Loop to see the city from the unique perspective, and then I we went to Rogers Park and I showed them how I live, and how close the lake is.

Although it was a perfect beach weather, the beach was so packed that I didn’t think I could find any pleasure and enjoyment being on the beach on in the water, co after I saw them off, I returned to catching up with life :).

Then, there was 90F on Wednesday followed by this horrible thunderstorm that started during the concert. I still can’t get over of how bad it was, and how quickly everything was flooded, and my mom had such a horrible experience (in addition, she could not sleep the night before that because of the illegal fireworks).

And then there was Thursday, when it was barely warm (lower 70-s), but since the lake was already warmed up, it was a beach weather, and it was such a fun to jump. in the waves!

Summer is the only time when I try to work from home one or two days a week to be able to have a lunch break ar the beach!

Health Updates

After my biking accident and the doctor’s appointment a week later, the x-ray results came earlier than I expected – on Sunday. The results stated I had a fracture with minor displacement. On Monday (June 11), the doctor whom I saw on Friday called me with “I told you!” message and sent me to the orthopedic doctor. That doctor took yet another bunch of x -rays and said that he did not see any fracture and I did not need to wear a splinter, wait for this whole thing to heal, and come back in three weeks.

Because of my travel and the holidays, I ended up going back only today. Both my left thumb and the left index finger hurt to some degree when I was doing something with my left hand, including applauding at the concerts, and overall, I was not convinced that I didn’t have a fracture. But just a couple of days before this last visit to the doctor, I started to feel much better, so they said everything was fine and I do not need to come anymore unless I want some special hand therapy. I am not going to waste my time on that.

The last mom’s physical therapy session was at the beginning of June, and I told our physical therapist that I was going to do all the exercises he prescribed to my mom. So that’s what I am planning to do because my left thumb still bends only a halfway in comparison to the right one 🙂

Another Weather Disaster!

Today was the second time I attended the “American Salute” concert, and the first time ever I paid for the seat to be close to the stage, to avoid the crowds, and to be protected from the elements. And it was the first time that the concert I attended was interrupted because of severe weather! Also, I took my mom to the concert, and she was miserable because her feet were completely wet, and we had to stand for almost 30 minutes (it was so bad I could not even think of walking to the street to get an Uber), the water was everywhere!…

… I am so disappointed! It started great!

Learning English At School: Visiting Teachers

A very unusual thing about my school was that we had “visiting teachers” from abroad – “zagranitza” felt unbelievably close. I remember two visiting teachers, both of them taught for a semester. 

The first teacher was Mr. McCarthy, and he was from the UK. I believe I was in the sixth grade then. He rotated through all of our English “groups,” so each group had him two or three times during a semester. It is possible that he taught the upper grades more frequently, but I was in the sixth grade and didn’t care. A couple of times, he gave presentations for a bigger assembly, talking about the UK and the educational system there. I remember that somebody asked him how much he was making, and he said that that’s the same as asking a woman how old she is, but that he would respond. I do not remember the numbers now. He explained that he would make more if he taught in a public school (in contrast to the US, the UK “public schools” are private, highly selective schools.) I also remember that our English teachers were ecstatic for the opportunity to have conversations with a native speaker.’

The second one (a year later) was Mr. McFerson, and he was from the US. The arrangements were more or less the same, so we had several classes with him. I remember how he told us a Goldilocks tale, and before he started, he explained two words from this fairy tale. I still imagine him saying: porridge – kasha, Goldilocks – Masha. However, the thing which impressed us most during this class was that he sat on the teacher’s desk and lifted one of his feet, putting it almost on another knee. I also remember how on Thanksgiving (which had to be a workday for him), our group monitor presented him with a souvenir doll and said: Mr. McFerson, we congratulate you with your national holiday Thanksgiving Day!

One thing to credit to our teachers: we didn’t feel like understanding the native speakers was “too difficult.” We understood English and American accents and were not shy to talk. 

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.

Finding Nature

On Saturday, I did what I had planned to do for a very long time: I took Metra to Chicago Botanic Garden. I love the Botanic Garden, and I often went there when I lived in Palatine, but taking public transport there appeared to be not as easy as I initially thought.
There is a bus from Howard, but it takes a relatively long time and does not run on Sundays. And in any case, I feel extremely dizzy when I ride on a bus for a long time. As for Metra, I knew that I would need to walk fon the station to the Botanic Garden, and I could not decide whether I should take a bike with me or walk, and ended up not going at all.
Finally, I decided to choose a day when I would go, and that day was July 1.
I took a train from Ogilvie after my escorting shift; it was drizzling most of the day, but didn’t pore, so I kept walking.
The most exciting part, however, was that I found the Forest Preserve! While it takes more than twenty minutes to get to the garden entrance, the Forest Preserve is right there, you get off the train, and here you are!

The pleasure of walking the trail in the woods was even more than seeing the familiar sites of the Botanic Garden (although the Garden was great!)

Continue reading “Finding Nature” →

Thoughts On What’s Happening…

SCOTUS decisions … I do not even want to talk about it. During my escort shift on Saturday, we talked about what happened last week, and the verdict was unanimous: we don’t know what was worse; every day was just new craziness. However, I think that the end of affirmative action is the worst. I don’t know what universities will do. I do not know how in the world these judges could think it was a great idea… How were they thinking?!

… upon returning from Finland, I started to go to the beach each time I worked from home. Same as last summer, it is a most satisfying relaxation, even if for a very short time. Most days, the Park District Day Camp is out there. Each time, I pass a large group of eight-nine-year-olds playing in the sand, splashing in the water, building castles, hugging and piggy-backing, all skin colors mixed – a perfect emblem of Rogers Park. I hope these beach memories will stay with them for the rest of their lives…

***

So, the recent events didn’t bring Ukraine back to the front pages… They brought Russia to the focus of attention. Since the start of the war, I have become used to the adverse reaction to the fact that I am Russian. These reactions subsided through the last year, but on Saturday, I had it again: “You are dangerous; what are you guys doing?” I replied to the effect that “it’s them, not us,” because I do not want to be associated with the fight between two evils. Maybe I am not expressing it clearly, but I would be instead blamed for Russian aggression toward Ukraine than the mutiny and what’s not. I am sad that people focus more on Russian internal affairs than the war. 

***

We had heavy rain for most of the weekend, but especially today, and our gym flooded again! Less damage that time, but still…

And working on the book – lots of tedious tiny things…

June Books

The Confidant – a book about Anna Marie Rosenberg. Amazing woman and an amazing book; how could I never hear about her?! I loved this review of this book on Goodreads, so I am copying it here instead of writing my own 🙂

Early 20th Century America was a place of change and opportunity. Within the first 50 years, US citizens were a party of industrialisation, the depression, two world wars, and the cold war. What is not so well known is the part Anna Rosenberg, a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant, facilitated and negotiated to help shape the America we know today.

Anna Rosenberg, a 5’3″ pocket rocket, with little more than a high school education, rose to the inner sanctum of the White House during these pivotal years, ‘You don’t have to be like a man to succeed. If you know your stuff, you’ll be alright.’ Anna began as a negotiator between the fast-forming unions of the early 20th Century and capitalist corporates. Her unique sense of mediation, so that both sides could win, as opposed to brute force, won all-around trust. This skill base was leveraged to bring about the greatest mobilisation of troops and factory workers when the US entered WW II – including the negotiation to desegregate and include African Americans. She further pushed for the use of women in the war effort, ‘The morale of the nation depends upon its women.’ Despite being the first person to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, her credibility was attacked during McCarthyism. Still, throughout this ordeal, she held her head high and stayed true.

‘The Confidante’ not only details the life of this amazing woman. it also offers a robust summary of these transformational years in American history. It is astounding just how pivotal Anna Rosenberg, who is so little recognised today, was. Often stories of inspiring, historical women figures, are about the struggle they suffered in breaking into a ‘man’s world’. Anna’s story is different. Anna only saw advantages to being a woman within her place of work, ‘Men will talk more freely to a woman than to another man, and when men talk freely nine times out of ten misunderstandings vanish’. She ultimately just wanted to be herself and if that meant she could make a difference, then she worked hard at doing so.

Christopher Gorham has done a fantastic job delivering a short history of American politics in the early 20th Century and Anna Rosenberg’s pivotal, and unbelievably integral role within this. ‘The Confidnate’ is both an inspiring and illuminating book, well worth a read for so many reasons.

Moscow Excursion by P.Travers

I have mixed feelings about that book. On the one hand, it seems shallow, like “Look how weird these people are,” without any interest in finding what’s behind that behavior. Sometimes it feels like Travers purposefully wants to mount all this weirdness, making it Kafkian (although it is possible that she didn’t even have to overexaggerate that much.) On the other hand, possibly as a result of that sliding on the surface, she noticed things that were rarely noticed by foreign visitors.
Many details are painfully recognizable to me from my short encounter with the Intourst business, like trying to get out of the way to provide better food for foreigners only to still have it miserable, the lectures about economic achievements, the very bad English of the tour guides, “let’s go” and making sure the tourists are never left unattended. Overall – interesting. I learned something new :). And probably, I shouldn’t have expected an analytical essay. After all, these texts were originally produced as letters to a friend, talking about these “on the surface” impressions.

Without Children

Read it because the author was featured on WBEZ Reset. I think that the topic of normalizing women not having children is one worth discussing. For me, it is obvious that every woman has a right not to want children for whatever reason. It does not matter whether she has a medical condition or she is in a tough financial situation, or she simply does not want children. That’s her right. And I feel annoyed with all these discussions about what economic stimulus should be introduced to convince women to have more babies.

At first, the book sounded promising since it was discussing just that: leave women alone! But then it diverted to “many women take part in raising a child, not only her biological mother,” and went to the point that each woman should contribute to society by helping to raise babies.