2000-10-16 | 09:21:32

word up. how is you and your bad self, mamajama?

yo, so i got me some new sneaks this weekend...orange converse high-tops. nothing more satisfying. well...nope. nothing more satisfying. except maybe...

...i did the AIDS Walk on sunday. now, i ain't tellin' y'all that to make you say, "ahh, nictate, youz so giving!" ah, well, you can say that if y'all want. nope, i'm just sayin' it because i raised $275 without even trying and there were about 30,000 people there, some of whom had raised over $1,000, which has got to add up! now, if all of us did one little thing for whatever charity was near and dear to us, the world would be a much shinier place to live. so think a bit on what you could do, please!

every year at the AIDS Walk, this gay male quartet sings at one of the water stations--always the highlight for me. they're called men out loud. not only are they as cute and sweet as hell, they sing four-part harmony and do nudge-nudge-wink-wink songs, like one called "60 minute man." my friend and fellow walker patricia said that it's a novelty song from the '50s. can you believe they got away with these lyrical double entendres back then: "...i'll give ya 15 minutes of teasin', 15 minutes of squeezin', 15 minutes of blowin' my top... 'cause i'm the sixty-minute man!" they also do a great cover of the beegee's "more than a woman." what could be more divine than four gay guys singing "you're more than a woman, more than a woman to me..." awesome! they rule!

the theme of the walk this year was "i walk because..." and various people had filled out these yellow sheets of paper answering the question. the notes were then pinned to their backs for all to read as they walked on by.

"i walk because... i can and i care."

"i walk because... god is good."

"i walk because... i lost my brother, rick."

some people were wearing t-shirts with a silk-screened photo of the lost life they were walking for--smiling faces no longer gracing the earth. that's what got to me. otherwise you're kinda distracted by the event. but when you see a face and a name attached to the disease...god!

like this one dowdy, older white couple. their yellow signs explained that they were walking because they had lost their son, marcus something, esq. i looked them up and down. average, awkward, overweight, in visors, bright shorts and knee socks. i felt so sad for their loss. and why had they felt the need to scrawl "esq." after his name? that made me even sadder for some reason. as if they were saying, "our son was here. he was making a mark on the world. he was an intelligent, contributing, professional man. he was ours."

that's why i walked.

***

today over at girlboy, something special awaits you.

shauna apparently does not agree with popular opinion regarding meg ryan being america's sweetheart, but she does have some unique ideas on identifying her own personal sweetheart...

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