Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts
Grant Park Music Festival
That was the last week of GPMF, and it was one of my favorite pieces (and to be honest, who doesn’t like Carmina Burana?!). I had two subscription tickets and an extra one, so my guests and I went. It was absolutely perfect, not to mention that I had a chance to showcase Chicago night lights! The photos are partially mine, partially my guests.
Photos With Friends
A couple of photos taken during my friends’ visit – there should be more~
TIME Magazine: Americans Are Drinking Less
I can confirm that it is becoming more and more socially acceptable not to drink, to choose a non-alcoholic beverage or a mocktail over a cocktail.
Here is the link. I find it especially funny that they compare alcohol consumption over the party lines!
Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Americans Are Drinking Less”Yesterday’s Rally
One of my favorite real-life people on Instagram, Matt Kaplan, reported on yesterday’s meeting. Proud of Igor doing his part in this battle!
Surprisingly, there were some Fox News people, so there was a little bit of coverage there.
Conferences Prep
Lots of people are helping me both for PG DATA and for Prairie Postgres, but I still feel like I am doing “something” related to both non-stop.
We are waiting for our official website to be completed and released to us.
I am building our event in the EventZilla.
I am building the call for papers in Sessionize.
Communicating with the caterer, although another team member did most of the talks.
Approving social media posts and newsletters.
Our regular September meetup is coming.
My talk at Django US.
Recording of my P99 talk.
My September tutorial is still only half-done.
I have houseguests, and I feel like I do not have enough timewith them.
I can keep this list going on forever.
And summer is almost over!
“Parade” On Broadway In Chicago
Yesterday, my guests and I went to see Parade at the CIBC theater. I knew nothing about this show except that it was “about antisemitism,” and it shocked me. It sends a very clear message that all forms of racism are related, and no one is “better” than the other. It also demonstrates how easy it is to frame an innocent person, and how easy it is to turn public opinion against somebody. It was an incredibly heavy show, but my friends liked it.
All photos and videos, except for the first one, are from the official Broadway in Chicago website.
Annual Ukraine’s Independence Day March

Please attend
It’s Not Only NASCAR…
The plan for Sunday that my guests and I had was to go to the market in the morning, and then straight to the Field Museum. We planned to be there by 11 and probably stick around until 3 or 4 PM.
We left the house a little bit later than we planned, and waited for the next L-train a little bit more than we planned, but it was still fine; we didn’t need to rush. We had two options: either to take the Red Line to Lake, and take bus 146 from there, or take the Red Line all the way to Roosevelt, and then walk. I decided on the first option, because it was a hot day, and the walk might not be so enjoyable, and also, it’s more fun to see something through the windows rather than being underground.
When we got out of the Red Line at Lake, we saw that State Street was closed for a small/medium size rally. It looked like it was about to pass to the North, so we waited, and about 15 minutes later, we finally saw our bus. It was packed, and when we entered, we realized that there was a Bears game at Soldier Field. That meant not only that the bus was packed, but also that it was barely moving, and all the traffic was stalled. People started to get off the bus and walk. I felt like an idiot for choosing the bus in the first place, and we still had to walk! We finally arrived at the Field Museum at 12:30, and we had to start with lunch.
Fortunately, everything was great after that: we stayed in the museum until it was closed. We saw the Evolving Planet exhibit, the T-Rex 3-D movie, and the new exhibit Reptiles Alive!
As usual, there were more things we didn’t see than the ones we saw :).
Get Out. Speak Up. Act
The destiny of Ukraine can’t be decided without Ukraine.



