we be all night

I'm trying to get back into this writing thing, but I wasn't totally successful today. However, I was eminently successful at working out with Alyssa; she had me try deadlifting a barbell for the first time (we've been doing lifts with kettlebells but not barbells), and I was able to deadlift 175lbs, which both of us found rather surprising. She'd started with ninety or so and that was totally easy, so she kept increasing the weights to find my max, and 175 is where I was still able to lift it before my grip started to fail me. So she dropped me back to 135 and we did some reps there to work on my form. But being able to lift more than my body weight without doing a significant amount of training first is a testament to my strong peasant stock, I think - my Mayflower ancestor was probably a total pansy, but zee Germans have served me well.

Of course, now my back is sore and I expect that my hands will start bleeding at some point in this deadlifting odyssey, since my hands are really a little too small for any normal adult activities that require gripping things (yes, I realize that sentence could be misconstrued). But the workout was really good, and I went back to work feeling reenergized. Then I spent the afternoon sitting in meetings, which were all fine. And I cleared out around 5:30 with the intention of writing for an hour before dinner, but I mostly just stared at the first few chapters and made minor tweaks.

But I met up with Joann, Tolu and Jane for our semiregular friendship renewal dinner; it's pretty amazing that we've kept it going for so many years, and it's always fun to see them and hear about what's going on with life and work. We ate at Pacific Catch, which just went into the San Antonio Shopping Center - San Antonio used to be a total shithole, but they've put in $2800/month studios and some restaurants and the nicest Starbucks I've ever been too, so it's clear that even Mountain View is getting too pricey for most people. However, dinner was tasty and the company was great, and I don't really mourn the loss of the dilapidated Sears, so I suppose Mountain View will survive.

And now I must sleep, since I have grand plans to write in the morning before work - goodnight!