Most of Saturday afternoon I spent running around working on my costume for a party Saturday night (including shopping for fabric), and other errands related to getting ready for the party. The party was great! Good company, a mix of old friends, friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and new people to meet. There was one person I was hoping to spend more time hanging out with, but it was a very crowded and busy party, and I can’t complain too much that there were other people competing for the attention of each of us. And I got to meet lots of nice new people, some of whose names I might even remember the next time I meet them. (Who do I think I’m kidding?) Anyway, faboo party. Got home very late (around 4:00am); got to bed even later.

On Sunday, scholargipsy and I went to the Fells for a hike, despite both of us being very low on sleep. It was a great hike (somewhat lenghthened in a perfectly pleasant way by getting turned around and taking a long time to find our way back to the parking lot), and a great conversation. I think this was the first time he and I had gotten together just the two of us, and it was really cool. Afterwards we went to Davis Square so I could get something to eat – we’d been aiming for the Diesel, but both they and the Someday were really crowded, so we ended up at Rosebud. The amazingly talented scholargipsy did a great Rosebud-themed drawing on the placemat, and handed it to the waitress for the restaurant, who showed it to her boss, who said it was great and he was going to frame it. Typical scholargipsy. And he gave me some tips about trying to develop some drawing ability in myself. You know, he’s a really good person.

After that, and after determining that an art supply store that scholargipsy had inspired me to go to wasn’t open, I went to the gym. I had been a little concerned after my last time there, because I had a fair amount of pain afterwards, and most notably because some of it didn’t seem to be muscular, but involving connective tissue. Well, last time I was there, I discovered that my personal trainer hadn’t given me the list of what weight to use with each machine, so I’d tried to guestimate by feel, aiming for how it had felt when he’d put me through the paces on various machines as he was doing the evaluation. I had run into him later that night, and he had printed up the sheet with that for me, so this time I had it. Well, on all of the exercises I had overestimated the weight to use compared with what he’d assigned me, and for some of them I’d grossly overestimated it. On the ”preacher curl”, for instance (which works the biceps), I’d started with almost four times the weight he’d assigned me, and after a few reps backed down to only twice the weight he’d assigned me. That was probably when I pulled something in my elbow. (It was all better by today, but that was why I didn’t work out on Friday.)

So using the numbers the trainer had given me, I found it much easier, and I was left with no pain afterwards (not even sore-muscles pain, although I had a bit of that while I was actually doing the exercises). In fact, most of the weight machines I went around and did a second time after finishing the first round, ’cause I didn’t feel like I was done. (I didn’t spend much time on the treadmill, figuring that the 2 hours or so of hiking in the Fells could probably count for some of that.)

So I’m having fun at the gym. With luck, going to the gym will soon become routine and stop being noteworthy, and I can stop boring you about it. :-)

Oops! It's 1:00am! So much for an early night’s sleep... G’night, all!