Citizen Chicken. Part 1

In the last blog-post I was walking down the memory lane and ended up in a Casino. Well, what do you know, it happens to some of us.
Then Helene asked where am I from, I started writing an answer and realized it is a whole new post.
So here goes Chicken!
I was born and lived up until I was 19 years old in Ukraine. At the time when Ukraine was a part of USSR - meaning Russia.
Teenagers are pretty horrible people. I think G-d put them on Earth for two reasons. One, so that they would remind their parents of all the stupid, reckless, heartless, things the parents did when they were that age. Second, that when they grow up and have kids of their own they could tell each other - it is OK, we were much more stupid, reckless and heartless when we were that age, this too shall pass.
My poor parents, they really had it tough! I was born in Russia and as the country slowly began to change 25 years ago I decided that I HAD to be a part of that change. We attended illegal political meetings, wrote proclamations and swore to die gloriously for the couse. Unfortunately, many of my friends managed to do it. We were not violent. Just the opposite - we believed that if we would just educate people they would do the Right thing (whatever it was) themselves. Most people would consider what we did naive, idealistic and harmless. Russian authorities did not think so. Many of my friends were arrested (for mostly trumped up reasons). Our phone was openly listened to. I remember talking with a friend, who had a cold and discussing home remedies, since medications has disappeared off the pharmacy shelves by then. All of a sudden a third voice cut in "You know girls what worked for me - was..." Poor lady just could not help herself, she had to enter such an interesting conversation!