Hello blog, and happy Monday!
Today I am feeling very grateful for time off and time in between, and the rest of this blog post will be, in some way or another, an elaboration on that idea.
First of all, today was Presidents’ Day, which means I had a beautiful three day weekend. Personally, I think every weekend should be a three day weekend. I spent most of my break in bed, though I did manage to make it out to the Ville on Sunday afternoon for Too-Cold-Truly’s with my best friend Anastasija, a tradition where the two of us walk to the ice cream place down the road while there’s still snow on the ground and we’re still wearing our heavy winter coats and eat our ice cream on a park bench while our fingers and the tips of our ears freeze. It’s not the most enjoyable experience, but it’s a necessary tradition. This trip, I had Milky Way, which is a new seasonal flavor where they put caramel sauce and chocolate pieces in chocolate ice cream to make it taste like a Milky Way candy bar. It was pretty good, but it had nothing on my all-time favorite- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, which is peanut butter flavored ice cream with chocolate pieces in it. Before I graduate from Wellesley, I have to make sure my dad has a chance to try their Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, because he’s the biggest Reese’s fan I know.
Something I haven’t been able to find a lot of time for with all of my rushing around lately is the carillon. In addition to playing the bells, I’m also the fundraising chair for the Guild of Carillonneurs, and right now I’m putting together our spring fundraiser. Despite that, I’ve had difficulty finding free time to head up to the bell tower and actually practice and play my weekly concerts. This Friday, however, I made it to our weekly Masterclass, where I practiced “Whole New World” from Aladdin on the big bells and had a chance to listen to what a lot of my friends in the guild have been working on lately. My favorite part of being in the guild is the moments where we sit around the big carillon upstairs and listen to each other play, and this Friday it was made even better by my prime seating location, which allowed me to watch the sunset on the lake out the window while everyone else practiced. That’s where I snapped the very magical header image of this post.
Last week I ended up needing a little bit more space for myself than my schedule necessarily allows, so while it’s not something I like to make a habit of, I took a couple of classes off and spent the time resting instead. Thursdays are usually my busiest day of the week; I’m at work, in meetings, or in class from 8:10AM to 5PM, with only an hour long lunch break in between my commitments, a gap which is filled about twice a month by res staff meetings. It can be a lot, and I was feeling really overwhelmed going into such a busy day after having taken Wednesday off to rest, but things really ended up lining up in my favor. My three hour long class that day was moved to Zoom, which meant I got to attend from my bed with my box of snacks sitting next to me, I had one of the best French classes of the whole year, and my weekly work meeting got pushed back about half an hour, which meant that I had a chance to walk up the lake path behind the library to see the frozen lake during the brief period where there was no snow on the ground. Not only that, but I also ran into Maria, a friend from class and a fellow Education Studies major, on my way there, and I got to walk with them and their dog flower for a little bit of the journey. It was really just what I needed, and the pictures I took aren’t too bad either.
As of today, there are twenty-three days left until I fly home for spring break, and while I won’t lie and say I’m not counting down the days, I’m also looking forward to what that time in between has to bring. Once break is over, it’ll be a dead sprint to the end of the semester, so I’m trying to take advantage of the peace we have right now. I also need to start taking advantage of the time I have left with my senior friends more, because I only have a couple months left to see them this frequently. Many things to think about; if only the world would stop moving so I had time to think about them!
Sending you joy,
Andrew
P.S. For anyone wondering, the blog title is actually from a Looney Tunes Show Merry Melodies song that Lola the bunny sings about Presidents’ Day. I highly recommend a watch if you need a laugh.