I didn’t see enough of Montreal, but here are some pictures taken on the way back to the hotel from one of many dinners :). I love how the city looks in the twilight.
Montreal At Dusk
Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts
pgConf.dev
I am very happy with this conference. The last time I attended this event was in 2012, and it was before it was rebranded. It was the first Postgres conference I attended, I hardly knew anybody, and didn’t understand most of the talks (and it felt like everyone was smarter than me!) Just to be clear, there were plenty of talks at this conference that I also couldn’t understand, I am just not afraid to say that
I will post more in my professional blog, but also wanted to wave my hand here – I didn’t disappear, all is good!
Montreal
When I started planning my trip to Montreal, I notified my old friend from Ottawa that I would be in Canada, and she graciously suggested that she come to Montreal to see me. We used to visit each other often, but later things changed, and the last time I saw her in person was in 2016. I planned on coming a day before the start of the conference so that we could have the whole day for ourselves, but later I learned about the Postgres Extensions Day, a day before the opening, so the organizer convinced me to attend. As I mentioned yesterday, I attended for a half-day, and at about noon, my friend messaged me that she had arrived, so I left the event.
We had an amazing time catching up. Since my friend shares my thrust to culture, we could not just “walk around.” After lunch, we went to see the Notre Dame Basilica, and then Chateau Ramezay – a former governor residence, and currently a history museum.
Pre- conference: Postgres Extensions Day
I didn’t plan to attend, but was convinced by the organizer, and didn’t regret!
First Day In Montreal
The only way to be on time with American Airlines is to take the first morning flight on Sunday! I am saying it for the second time within the past two months! Also, that was the only way to get to the airport from my house in 35 minutes!
Hotel Alt in Montreal:
The conference didn’t even start yet, and I already had so many interesting conversations, and learned about so many additional events which will happen during this week! I regret that I didn’t check all of them out earlier and didn’t sign up for some of the activities. My excuse is that the last couple of months were all bloody fights, and making sure the conference would be a great event, regardless of these fights. I hope that next year will be better, though! At least now I know what to expect and will look for the opportunities.
Languages
I want to record this as a separate post because my mom suddenly remembered that something like that happened at some point and started to tell everyone. I do not remember the episode itself because the conversation happened without me :), but I remember who my mom described it to me many years ago. What she told me back then makes sense, while what she is saying now does not make any sense at all.
I should start with mentioning that my paternal grandmother’s side of the family were polyglots. Living in the pale of settlement, they had to speak four languages to get around, plus Hebrew, just because you should know, plus foreign languages taught in the gymnasium, plus some Greek and Latin. So it was only natural that when I started to talk (which, as I already mentioned, was very early – I recited first nursery rhymes at the age of 14 months), my great-grandmother started to introduce some Yiddish, her first language. She started casually saying to me, “And in Yiddish, this is called so and so.” When my mom overheard that, she said: “Gustava Markovna (my great grandma’s Russified name), let her learn how to speak Russian first!” For which my great grandma replied: “I never expected you to be such an antisemit!” For which my mom got very upset and ran out of the room, and my great ant Fania followed her and tried to console her saying that “nobody meant anything.” My great grandmother never apologized because she was not a type of a person who ever apologies, but the question of Yiddish was never raised again. (And it has nothing to do with my mom teaching me English later)
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.
A Friend Who Is Shorter Than Me
Three years ago, I experienced this effect in full: for two consecutive days, I walked and talked with two friends, both shorter than I was. Something in this situation throws my spine out of balance, and my left side pains return. I didn’t have it that bad for quite a while, although I had less severe cases sometimes when I walked with my mom, and I forgot about it.
Two weeks ago, my pains returned out of nowhere, and it took me a while to figure out that the root cause was the same – for two days, I was engaged in long walks and conversations with a friend who is shorter than me (it’s not easy to be shorter than me, that’s why it does not happen often!)
By now, I know what I need to do to fix the problem, so I asked my doctor to renew my high-dose ibuprofen prescription and went to physical therapy, but I am wondering whether I will ever be able to talk to people who are shorter than me without pain 🙂
What A Falling Glass Can Do
It was not even funny. Or it was.
Everything in this house is too high for me, including the shelves, and sometimes, when I try to put things on the shelves, something falls off. This time, it was a glass from the lower shelf. I didn’t have time to catch it, and I was expecting the burst of small glass pieces when it would hit the granite countertop. Instead, something else happened.
I didn’t hear the glass breaking, but suddenly, I saw the whole countertop covered with tea! When the glass was falling down, it hit a teapot spout on its way down, and sliced it off! I should have taken a picture, because it was a remarkably clear cut, but I didn’t, so you have to trust me!
Here is a replacement; as usual, nicer than the old one 🙂
Now We Are Talking!
As I said yesterday, Chicagoans didn’t realize right away what had just happened, and the news hosts were running pre-planned programming, but today, the streams of excitement flooded the city! In the news, in the conversation at the workplace, and all the jokes I anticipated, and the ones I would never think about! And of course, the most important battle: is Pope Leo the Sox fan or the Cubs fan?!
ODS Dinners
On a local front: on Wednesday, I rehabilitated my cooking skills at the ODS. Last time I was there (at the beginning of April), I tried to cook the Boudin Balls, which I had no idea about! How they should look, how they should taste – nothing! Yes, I said – ask the residents what they want, but now I know better – “want” should be a subset of what I “can.”
After my attempt was declared an experience rather than a success, we decided that next time we should make a baked salmon, but then I had to cancel my volunteer shift because I had to go to Helsinki, and I was only able to come this Wednesday.
Baked salmon was a smashing success, and homemade mashed potatoes too, but they are always a success. One of the residents asked me to put aside some boiled potatoes before I mash the rest because “he didn’t like how mashed potatoes are soggy.” I put several pieces aside, but told him: just you wait! In a little bit, he was telling everyone that I proved him wrong 🙂
I am glad that I had a couple of people who actually participated in the process, and even suggested the spices, and that I could share the love :). And I forgot to take pictures again!
Hettie's Reflections 