Dealing with day-time nightmare

I have had a terrible day-time nightmare this afternoon. Rehearsal for the double bass ensemble was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. this evening.

In hope to practise my parts beforehand, and to practise Emily's Suicidal Tendencies, I had taken leave from work so that I could reach the rehearsal venue at least two hours before the scheduled start of the rehearsal.

After settling some administrative matters, I have suffered my first day-time nightmare for the year 2007: To find the double bass that I have been using (in the orchestra) MISSING!!! (And I affectionately call the double bass my boyfriend. Gosh, my boyfriend is missing!)

Folks, I felt my heart was crying deep down over the lost of the double bass. Concert is just two more days away, and I have been spending hours and hours practising on that double bass. If it is missing for good, won't it mean that I have to practise twice what I have done in order to get used to playing on another double bass? More so, won't that mean that another large sum of money has to be spent to buy another new double bass, for no apparent reason? Furthermore, I think I have a sense of emotional attachment to this non-living double bass which I have been playing on for the past four years or more.

Supposedly, all double basses are in the care of our orchestra, and usually, all legitimate loan-requests of the double basses would have to seek permission from our orchestra, and I would usually be informed of all such loans since I am the sectional leader of the double bass section.

If I were aware of where the double bass had gone to, I won't be so upset. The thing is there was absolutely no legitimate reason for that double bass not to be in the store. Absolutely none. This alone got my mind running wild, trying to search for a plausible reason. Perhaps there could be one reason: someone had taken it without going through the proper channels.

Since that is the double bass that I will be playing on for the upcoming concert, my first instinct was to investigate to find out its whereabouts. I had to spend half-an-hour checking the entire store and all the rooms in the vicinity to see if that double bass could have been misplaced elsewhere than its stipulated location. Then another half-an-hour just simply to call every possible person who may know the whereabouts of the double bass.

When finally, the whereabouts of the double bass had been traced, the truth came to light: Someone had taken the double bass HOME, without putting up the proper loan request, and informing the relevant person.

Folks, I'll share and ask of you, if you ever have to use something that is meant to be shared among various persons (in this case, THE double bass), I dare say that it will be very much appreciated if you could go make sure that the relevant person are duly informed before you ever take it anywhere else. If you don't know whom to inform, ask please. You can really help save a person from having to go through such a hellish and shocking experience like mine.

I think I had one of the most black faces today. There is enough feelings of madness in me to scold a person responsible for the missing double bass till he drops dead down, but I decided that there isn't any value or effectiveness to scold this person. I think I had spent close to 10 minutes trying to communicate with this person who has taken the double bass away to ask that he returns the double bass back as soon as possible, while keeping safe on his journey here.

I decided that being civil was more effective than letting this person experience how much shock and trauma his seemingly innocent act had caused me. I could have scolded him, give him the black face, but I decided it wasn't worth my effort nor was it useful in any way. Perhaps at the end of the day, he may be ignorant of the nightmares he had caused, but I hope the act of simply having to return the double bass within a short notice could remind him the significant consequences of his perceived harmless act.

While I admit that some rules can be irrelevant, I have to stress that there are many rules that have important functions in ensuring that things are in order. I hope it was effective enough simply to stress to this person that the rules with regards to the loaning of instruments have to be respected.

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Anyway, because my usual orchestra double bass could not be available till later the night, I had to adjust, and go through the rehearsal using another double bass. Playing had helped relieved me of the agony that I had felt over the day-time nightmare.

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I wrote this post in hope to get the sense of agony and shock out of my system. Writing can be therapeutic.

Let this post be reminder to myself and all readers that sometimes our seemingly little act may cause great inconveniences and grievances to others.

I think it can be acceptable not to follow certain rules. However, I am for the idea that before we decide to break any rule, please do examine if the rule is relevant, and if the rule has certain purpose to serve. I am for the idea that if we were to live solely as single individuals, there is no need for any rule at all. We can do whatever we want, and it won't affect anyone.

Yet, because we are social-beings and we often have to work and live with others, rules do have functions to serve in ensuring that things would generally go in order and that other members of the team won't end up having to suffer extremely agonising situations because of an ignorant act of one person.

Woes were mine, when my practising time today was signficantly reduced because I had to trace the whereabouts of my boyfriend. But it was something that just have to be done.

On the hindsight, I shall be glad that the nightmare had happened today, and not on the day of my concert. It might be a blessing that I found out about the matter today, and not on 10 Jan 07. Please pray things would be fine for us all on 10 Jan 07.