Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

This afternoon's workout was for reasons as much psychological as physical, though I think it benefited me in both areas. I pushed myself in terms of how much I did on some of the machines (mostly early in the workout), but didn't do as many kinds of things as I often do.

After exercising, I went up to 85th Street, where elissaann was having a small party, with lots of nice food. She gave me tea with honey (as promised this morning), and smoked salmon, and other good things. Early in the party, I discussed languages and cultures with some of her neighbors: cases in Russian, German, et cetera; Argentine history and culture; the habits of Muscovites, New Yorkers, and the residents of Buenos Aires of thinking of our own cities as either the only place worth living, or the entire country. The neighbors, who had other appointments, left around the time more LiveJournal people started to arrive. Elissa lit Chanukah candles, while she, filkerdave, and I sang--they both are better singers than I, and remembered all of the relevant Hebrew, whereas I dropped out about 3/4 of the way through. The conversation then turned to music and burlesque--one of the attendees does a burlesque act on the side, which involves him inflating a huge balloon, and a woman then doing a striptease within it. He also makes a variety of designs--some of which are suitable for general audiences--out of smaller balloons.

Dave also brought a fine home-baked white bread, which I had some of with butter, and then some more of with butter and more lox: the fish was just sitting there, and protein is good, especially after exercise.

( gym numbers, cut for your convenience )

I also had a brief but very pleasant phone conversation with adrian_turtle this morning; we'd been missing each other, since she doesn't have ready access to AIM for our usual text chats at the moment.