Hello everyone! I’m a little frazzled, because a little over an hour ago, as I was warming up my violin to rehearse with piano, my bow hair just snapped. Just snapped! You can see the photo below, although it actually pains me to look at. It’s like looking at an x-ray of a broken bone or something.
Trigger warning: instrument damage :'(
This incident is particularly unfortunate, you see, as I’m performing Schumann Romances tomorrow at the Music Department’s “Works in Progress” concert. Now, having played violin for nearly fifteen years to date, I’ve had this happen before. Just about everything that could go wrong, I’ve had happen, usually right before, and occasionally during, a performance. Bow hair snapping, strings snapping, bridges snapping, I’ve been there. So yes, I had my back-up bow…only the thing is that it’s the bow from my old, smaller violin. And yes, I can play anyways. I rehearsed with piano and everything still sounds lovely, but it’s not the same. I miss my own bow. And it’s really unfortunate timing, because besides my concert tomorrow, I’m also performing Piazzola’s “Street Tango” at our tango-themed studio recital on Monday, and my jury (semester culminating performance for music faculty) is next Friday. Hopefully I can get a repaired bow back from the luthier (violin repair guy) before then!
It’s been a rough week, and not just because of bow-related issues. I had a big orgo midterm on Tuesday, which despite my best efforts to prepare did not go as well as I hoped. I was feeling pretty burnt out after that, so in an effort to get myself out of my mental funk, I decided to take a walk around the lake. Every day, I wake up on a campus with a lake, but my interaction with it is mostly staring longingly at the sparkling water from the third floor of the library. So it was absolutely wonderful to experience lake as the sun went down, listening to the red winged blackbirds calling to one another as they settled in for the evening. I decided to follow the sounds of rushing water, away from the lake-bound path, and I found a waterfall. It was actual catharsis. That’s Wellesley, I told myself. Sometimes, you have a rough day and then you find your campus has a waterfall.
How did I not know this existed before this week?
The other highlight of my week, and this is going to sound completely random but I am PROUD okay, is that I unknowingly made my own crude oil in Orgo lab. Our original reaction was 1-heptanol + NaI à 1-iodoheptane. I guess I was operating on such a molecular scale that I didn’t realize 1-iodoheptane was actually crude oil until I made it. My lab professor walked by and just casually said, “Oh, congratulations! You’ve made crude oil.” And I was like, “Oh, yes. Making crude oil. This is a thing I just did.”
I was really proud so I snapchatted my crude oil achievement to all my friends
I guess that’s my week. When life gives you 1 heptanol and NaI, make crude oil-ade.
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor