October, 2010

leatherman's log

	October 2010

Week One |

Week Two |

Week Three |

Week Four |

Week Five

Week One:

"The Yellow Boat"

Friday night, the first night of October, during "Family Weekend", Winthrop University put on a performance of "The Yellow Boat", a story about an 8-yr old with hemophilia who became infected with AIDS back in the mid 80's. The director asked Catawba Care if we would set up our exhibition booth in the lobby, passing out red ribbons, HIV literature, and information about the services of the ASO (AIDS service organization.

Of course, you know that I didn't pass up the chance to work the booth again, much less the chance to attend a play. After all those years in college, finishing up a Speech minor and working long late nights doing stage crew work, I don't ever pass up the opportunity to see a performance of any kind.

"The Yellow Boat" is very stylized show with minimalistic settings. It was held in the Johnson Studio Theater at Winthrop University. This unique theater setting along with a talented cast made for an intimate, emotional performance. Having only started rehearsals at the first of the semester, kudos go out to the director and the whole cast for putting together such an excellent show in such a short time.

The director of the play, Erin Lee (facing the camera in this picture) provided two tickets, so that I and the director of Catawba Care, Anita Case (in the red shirt with her back to my camera) were able to attend the performance.

Before the play started Erin introduced Anita, who spoke for a few minutes, talking about the services Catawba Care provides the tri-county community and announcing our video competition for world AIDS day in December.

I was impressed by the this unique performance area and how well the director and cast were able to use it to their advantage. Although the words in the play may have been penned by another, the emotions and human qualities that the performers brought to each character turned a quirky little play into a moving piece of art. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance as it moved with it's happy, energetic beginning to it's sad, somber conclusion.

Actually I was very deeply moved by the performance. Knowing what little I did about the show beforehand, I thought it might be a touching show; but I was surprised at how much it effected me. I nearly broke down during the show, and did end up crying on the 30 minute drive back up the highway to my home. During the show when the child's parents begged him to please hang in there for "one more test", I could only remember how many times, I had begged Jim, just a little over 2 years ago, to hold on until we got results back from just "one more test". Then when the child in the play asked his parents would dying hurt, their answer of "It will hurt less than you hurt now" was nearly identical to what I said to Randy just hours before he passed away 16 yrs ago.

Maybe those are things said to and said by nearly everyone who is dying, but to my ears those words were echoes of words spoken in the worst times of my life - because no matter how bad things were when I was sick myself, the deaths of my partners have been the worst times of my life. Although I usually feel like I have dealt with those times and those emotions surrounding the deaths of my two partners pretty well, I never know when the grief and depression is going to jump out, say boo, and send me on a crying jag.

But of course, those horrible feelings that that play brought out are part of the basis for why I was there in the first place representing this ASO. If what I do by talking to people about HIV and passing out condoms will spare just one person the grief I have gone through (and obviously am still going through), if it'll keep just one person from dealing with the health issues that I have over nearly 20 years, then I will have accomplished something good as a testament to the two men whom I love so dearly.

To Erin and the cast, thank you again for asking us to attend with our display and giving us another opportunity to reach out to the community to tell about our services and heighten awareness about HIV/AIDS in our area. I deeply believe that every bit of awareness that we can bring to this topic, which seems to have faded into the background of life, keeps someone else from becoming infected or influences someone else to get tested and then treated when they get back positive results.

Early Fall Pictures from Around the Yard
After over 35 days without any rain and baking temperatures, September ended with some much needed rain and a definite cool down. Actually, it ended with nearly too much rain, as we had over 8 inches in three days. Although I still won't have to mow for a long time because of how the heat and dry killed the vegetation around here, the rain did help and there's a green color back in the plants, trees, and lawn. (by the way, this horrible drought and plants dying off is more of a local thing that I see in about a 2 to 5 mile radius from my house. My sister-in-law about 40 minutes away is still getting produce out of her thriving garden. )

The "Hearts A-Burstin" are bursting out all around the yard. These thin reedy vibrant green branches are loaded with heart-shaped red pods that burst open to spread their red seeds.

This is the fountain on Mom's back deck. I put the pump inside an old suet birdfeeder and wrapped it up in a cheap pair (33 cents) set of knee-high hosiery. The hose acts like a screen, keeping junk and leaves from sucking up into the pump, while the size of the cage allows for adequate water flow to the pump no matter how many leaves fall into the barrel.
	MouseOver
Sunny and Rudy bring us a double GBS* this month since I haven't shown as many of those as of late. Looking closer though, I found that that black spot on the pool pump table was a butterfly out in the sunshine drying off it's wings and showing off his colors - and risking getting chomped by some bird, sitting there primping so exposed. LOL
One of several dogwood trees (this one in the front yard) is starting to change, with it's leaves slowly gathering a reddish tint.

Summer is Over and the Pool is Closed

Well, I knew the time was coming and it has finally arrived. With the recent rains, the day temps have dropped into the 70's and the night time temps are in the 40's - and that means that it's time to close up the pool. But I'm not complaining (too much) because the pool was open for a very long time this year. I opened the pool (and was in the water) on May 1st, and was able to use the pool until Sept. 30th, the last day of last month. That's FIVE months! WooHoo!

Being an above ground pool means that every night the pool loses whatever heat it might have accrued in the daylight hours. Add to that, the fact that with the sun in a different position in the sky, the pool is hardly getting any sunlight on it anymore, and that means the water has gotten cold. It's now a very, very chilly 68 degrees and getting colder with each passing day.

Since this was the first year of having the pool up, I wanted to drain it and put it away for the winter months. Normally, I think I could leave it up but drained down half-way, the way we used to do Jim's pool. However, I would like to the opportunity (since it only took about 4 days to fill it up using water from the well on a schedule of only a few hours a day), to work on the ground and level the area out just a bit more. Plus I know there was a place under the liner that needed to be filled in and raised a bit, and another place that felt like a branch or root was close to poking through. With the pool drained and packed away, I'll be able to work on the area through the Fall and Spring and have it much more level for next year.

Although I had placed the pool appropriately so that it's drain spout was pointed down hill, wouldn't you know it, but the drain was an odd size and the hose was too small to attach, so I could siphon the water way down the back hill. I went to 2 hardware stores and couldn't find anything to rig together to manage using a garden hose for draining. So I used the next best thing - Southern ingenuity!

Using a piece of old gutter and the folded-up tarp

, I was able to funnel the water across the lawn and out through the fence to drain down the hill to the gulley in the back.

One last picture of the filled pool

While the pool started draining (I didn't let it drain overnight, so it took two days), I took the pump offline and drained it. I also worked on deflating all the floats. I learned from all the years of doing this at Jim's pool that the easiest, fastest way to the pinch up the air valves and lie on top of the floats. The pressure from your body weight is the quickest way to force the air out. It is very weird though lying on the floats on the deck while their sink underneath you.

Then I hung all the floats across the clothes to drip dry for a while. Afterwards using the electric air pump in reverse, I sucked out the very last bit of air, folded up each float and put them away in a sealed trash bag to wait for next Summer.

As the water slowly drains out, the sides of the pool slowly begin to sag.

The last day for wearing my speedos this year.

Going, Going, Going,
and nearly Gone

While the water was draining out, I had to get in and brush the pool a bit to stir up the little bit of algae and leaves so that would drain out, and I'll have less to clean when I wipe down the liner and roll it up to pack it away.

Thankfully the water was down to less than a foot, so I wasn't tempted to submerge myself for one final "in the pool" picture. The water temp was down to 65 and I don't think I would have enjoyed it all as the day had only warmed up to a cool 70 degrees.

When the water was finally down below the level of it's drain value, I just stepped on one of the sides and let the last of the water flood out and drain down the backside of the yard.

Drained and Drying Out
while I disassembled the ladder and began storing all the equipment in the shed.

Done for the day, I covered the pool up with it's tarp, one last time. In the next couple days, I'll go back with some towels and cleaner to scrub up the liner, dry it off, and roll it up.

As always it was a sad day closing up the pool for another season. I mean I do so love the Summer with it's heat and sunshine. Especially those years I lived in Ohio, as Fall and Winter there are so cold, cloudy, dark and dreary. Of course, today was also tinged with some sadness, as it was just me closing up the pool. It still seems so odd and wrong doing something like this without Jim nor at Jim's house. Sigh.

Week Two:

Rockin' Volunteers

Twice a year, in Spring and Fall, Catawba Care hosts a luncheon to recognize their volunteer workers. Volunteers do an awful lot of work for this non-profit organization allowing it to offer a range of services helping close to 500 clients and all the populace of York, Chester and Lancaster counties in HIV prevention and education.

The theme of this luncheon was "Volunteers Rock". Mary Alice, the Volunteer Coordinator, and Latisha, the supervisor over the Case Managers and the volunteer department worked to bring together this affair. Just like the Spring event, this luncheon was held in the Old Town section of Rock Hill, at the York Arts Council Building.

Done up in black and pink (like the 50's poodle skirt Mary Alice was wearing), the tables were decorated reminiscent of a sock hop.

The meal was burgers (beef, turkey or veggie), delicious mac-n-cheese, cole slaw, and chips.

The whole meal was served to the volunteers by the staff. Sticking with the theme of the event,
not only did we have that rockin' cake for dessert; but also old fashioned handmade sodas.

(Since this was not technically a public event, I have blurred some of the faces to protect the innocent. LOL)

After the meal, certificates were passed out recognizing volunteer for the various help that they had given to the agency. The volunteer who donated the most transportation miles received the appropriate gift of a free oil change. The clients who have volunteered to be board members were recognized. All the people who have been doing volunteer work for at least a year were given certificates commemorating their length of sevice.

The keynote speaker for luncheon was - ME!

Yeppers! Leatherman got asked to speak a bit about the volunteers. Since the first group of people (social workers, volunteers, health dpt. workers and medical workers) that got together to form Catawba Care came together in 1994, I discussed what my life with AIDS in 1994 was like (that's the year I began to be very sick and when Randy passed away), and how an agency like Catawba Care could have helped me. Heck, it would have been nice to have had an agency around back in 2008 when Jim passed away.

(Click here to read a copy of my speech, "Volunteers are the Rock" in a new window.)

I saw some teary eyes by the end and got quite a few compliments after my speech.
I was very touched to have people say that my words touched them

I was also very pleasantly surprised and touched when after my speech,

I was called back up and given an award and gift for being the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. I had not expected this recognition at all.

Along with the certificate, I was given a zippered notebook - which is really great since my old one isn't as nice, is about to burst apart and has a lot of old files stored in it. Now I have a much nicer notebook to use. And it's already filling up with my working information about the World AIDS Day Video Competition.

Facebook Trivia
	The Clarks' doggie, Blitskreeg, recently got her own Facebook page. Her avatar is this pix of her chilling on one of my sofas that I gave the Clarks when I moved away last year. The doggies and me enjoyed it for many years, so it's good to see it still being put to good use.
Here's another funny piece of Facebook trivia bite. Ritchie has registered his Facebook page with the name "Jesus Clark". Having grown up Baptist (I have more to say about growing up religious and my Christian high school shortly), I find it hilarious to see "Jesus is online", "Poke Jesus", and "Jesus has sent you a message".

More Butterflies
There are still butterflies flittering all around the property. I haven't been able to catch a picture of the large yellow ones that I've been seeing; but I found this interesting specimen out by what was the pool. I couldn't get him to open his wings long enough but he's a beautiful burgundy and yellow on the inside of his wings.

Where Does the Time Go?

Way, way back in Leatherman's past, he attended Northside Christian School from grades 5 to 12, and he graduated from there in 1980. My classmates had a few reunions through the years; but I was always up in Ohio, where I was either too sick or too poor to be able to take the trip back home to attend. Now that I'm back in town and could easily attend a reunion, happily it worked out that they decided to have a reunion this year. Scarily though, they decided to call this one our "30 Year Class Reunion".

I'm sure it just can't be thirty years though. Maybe for them; but I think maybe the cold weather in Ohio slowed down time for me and I'm only celebrating 20 years since high school. ROFL

Of course, not only was it because it's been so long since high school that made it scary; but leatherman had some trepidation about going to a "Christian" high school reunion. You never know how some of those religious people might act about leatherman coming out to them or (quelle horreur!

Thank you high school French class) telling them about having "the AIDS". For all the kindness, you my happy readers/friends, that you have shown to me, many people are troubled about those situations in my life, and some have been known to react in a not-so-nice way. That makes many events, ones like this reunion, always a toss up as to whether it will be a good time or a bad time. Either way, for me it's still a little bit of an issue because it's another time I have to out myself disclosing being gay and being HIV positive.

But thankfully Facebook had already brought me together with a number of my old classmates. I was pleasantly surprised to find them not only accepting of me; but found that some others were also (Quelle Surprise!

) gay! So amongst us, we began to discuss our reticence and trepidation; but with some enthusiastic encouragement from several former classmates and just wanting to touch base with old friends and memories of our shared childhood, we finally all chose to make it to the event.

After so many years apart, there was a lot of mingling long before anyone thought about ordering dinner. With the dim lights, and dim memories

, we were all squinting to read name tags before putting names to these older faces. However, as the night went along, it became easier to see and hear the kids we used to know inside these older adult bodies.

Though Bobby and Sharon and I finally chose to go with a united front, I have to give a big shout out to Jeana (Critter!

) for all of her encouragement. The impact she made in our lives in high school and now again as adults is amazing. It's hard to imagine that Jeana was only a part of our school life for two short years.

My Buddies

On the left is my buddy Sheri Blackwood

Since we were always in alphabetical order, it was always Antony Barber (who was just a couple seats down from me at this dinner), Michael Bivens and Sheri Blackwood. All the B's sitting in a row.

On the right is one of my best friends, Bobby Walker

After school while I went away to Pensacola Christian College for a year and a half, Bobby went away to another college. When we both moved back home, we both went to UNCC and we became roomies for nearly 2 years.

For good measure,
here's a picture of our other "B" buddy,

Antony and his lovely wife.

Bobby could tell that the margarita sure helped Sheri to certainly enjoy the evening.

Of course, with two bloody marys, Bobby was feeling the good vibrations too.

On the other side of the table from Jeana, Bobby, and Sheri, sat me, Kent

and his lovely wife Melani. Kent was a great guy back in high school, and that hasn't changed a bit! I had an excellent evening chatting with him and wished we could have had even more time to catch up.
Weird Coincidence - Kent and Melani live in Canton.

Ah, but not Ohio. LOL They live in Canton GA.

Before I tell you a bit of good/bad news about the Morrises, I need to shout out about Melani. What a sweet lady she is!

Although she didn't go to our school, she made a wonderfully honest effort to join our conversations, ask about us, and place us with stories that Kent had told her. Just by trying to support her hubby, having a good time herself, and meeting some new friends, Mrs. Morris made a very good impression on all of us former Northsiders.

Ah, but the troubling news about Mr. and Mrs. Morris happened on their way back home to Georgia that night. They were in a car wreck when a drunk hit them going about 100 mph!!

Though I define myself as an agnostic, sometimes I have to wonder if God isn't looking down and helping out just once in a while. Amazingly Kent and Melani were not not hurt - or worse! Here's Kent's amazing tale off Facebook:

It was amazing to watch God move my hands on I-575 to control the car at precise seconds. We did four 360s and steered around a sign and came to rest six inches from the trees. The police did a great job cornering the drunk after he smashed another car on Hwy 5. we were almost home when it happened about 2:30 this morning.

It's not everyday you see the direct intervention of God but it was clearly present tonight. It was God's immediate hand. Even though it was 2AM, there was light in the car and I could see to grab the E-brake and shift gears. There was peace during the storm.

Jeana might have had a few camera problems during the night; but that didn't dampen her joie de vivre.
(more high school French LOL For those of you not in Mrs. Whitaker's French class but in Mrs. Mozingo's Spanish class, that mean "joy of living")

I had a really great time throughout the whole evening and wished I could have had more time to have talked more with everyone.

Whether this is a collage or a montage,
it's US then and now!

About half of the Class of 1980
from Northside Christian School

Ricky Patterson, Michael Bivens, Sheri Blackwood, Van Wade, Jeana Carithers, Pete Godley, Antony Barber, Lawrence Swicegood, Duke Arnold
Kent Morris, Pam Smith (one of our teachers) Bobby Walker, Rene St. John, Karen Bunting, Jeff Hargett, Greg Mecimore
Lori Potter Simpson, Karen Collins Bailey, Sandy Stegall, Roger Malcom

Week Three:

Cleaning and Packing Away the Pool

Now that the pool was drained, I needed to wash it inside to get rid of any mildew, and outside to get rid of any mud, before I could fold it up and store it away for the winter.

Turning the pool liner inside out, I scrubbed it all up an dried it down.

Then I had to work on scrubbing up the outside, getting all the mud off and drying it up.

Of course, it's not all work.

Wearing my mp3 player and headphones guarantees that I incorporate some dance time into all my activities.

Little by little, I got the liner washed and dried and began folding it up. Eventually, I wrangled it and rolled it up before wrapping it up inside two contractor garbage bags.

All the gear and the pool liner are now
stored in the shed until next April

Dang! This was a lot of work! Thankfully, after I get this area more level, I won't have to take the pool down next year and won't have to do all this back-breaking work. I thought having a pool was supposed to be relaxing. LOL I'm getting too old for this much work.

An Old Friend and A Really Old Time
or
mIkIE and Phil go to the Carolina Renaissance Festival

MouseOver CloseUp of Phil

Along with meeting up with old classmates lately, this past weekend I met up with another old friend, Phil. Although Phil might have to qualify in that old classmate category too, as he also attended Northside Christian School. Phil was in the grade above mine for several years, before leaving and going to another school to finish up high school. Rather than meeting up to go to Scarowinds (the Halloween party at the local amusement park Carowinds), we meet up and went to the Carolina Renaissance Festival.

It was interesting meeting up with Phil at his place because he lives just a few blocks up the road from the house that I lived in with my family for most of my childhood. My parents moved there before my middle brother was born and I lived there till I moved away from home. The house actually stayed in the family until my father passed away.

I borrowed this pix from Google Maps, so I wouldn't be arrested for standing outside a stranger's home taking pictures. LOL

The Renaissance Festival is set up as the medieval village of Fair Haven. The Royal Court opens the day as a festival day for the entire town. The theme park covers over 6 acres, with shops, food and drink stores, entertainment stages, rides, vendors, and a cast of hundreds to help you feel like you're strolling through a Renaissance-era town.

Through the day, the Royal Family stroll through the village, hold dancing revels, holding knighting ceremonies, or officiating jousting tournaments.

All sorts of medieval people and creatures roamed the village of Fair Haven and the surrounding woods. We saw pirates and peasants, lords and ladies, jugglers and dancers, along with musicians of all sorts playing violins, hurdy-gurdy, flutes, and harps.

We even saw fairies - the real kind.


This person protrayed a statue...	... while this guy was dressed up in dragon armor.

Beside the shops, the big attractions at the festival were the shows. With 5 or so stages scattered about the grounds, every 15 minutes to half an hour, there was another entertainment show being performed. There were acrobats and juggler shows, a story-teller telling "fractured" fairy tales, sword fights, and many others.

The Bonnie Lass and the Pirate performed a show filled with jokes and songs - all about drinking and beer!

The best performers by far were the Tortuga Twins. As most of the performers held several shows throughout the day, the Twins got funnier and funnier, as the day worn on and their skits got bawdier and bawdier.

The Twins (who were actually "triplets") believe in serious audience participation and even if you weren't pulled up on stage (here they are reacting their crazy version of Little Red Riding Hood), they gave the audience plenty of chances to hoot, holler and clap to embellish the show.

You might like to visit their website (http://tortugatwins.com/) to see more about them.

During the day jousting events were held. The Royal Court would leave their tent at the front of the festival, and wind their procession through the festival, to the royal viewing box so that they could officiate over the event.

Held in three parts, when one of the knights began to insult the other, the tournament became a fight to the death. The final joust was filled with knights tilting at one another in sword, axe and whip fights (even flaming swords and whips were brandished). Several knights "lost their lives" in showers of blood before one knight was finally declared victorious.

Phil and I spent the whole day at the festival and had a wonderful time strolling through the shops, eating stew served in bread bowls, and watching all the shows, along with the hundreds of costumed performers roaming throughout Fair Haven.
Definitely visit the website for the Carolina Renaissance Festival to see many more pictures about the event.

Week Four:

Baby, I'm a Star

(being inked with a Prince tattoo, I'm allowed to make references to the 80s like this. LOL)

I had a few bit parts in several college Shakespeare stage productions.I had a letter to the Editor published in the Canton Repository years ago; and then my picture was published on page one of that newspaper just a few years ago. Recently, I got the chance to be on television. Now all I need to do is be on the radio, and then in a movie, and I'll able to call myself a "Media Star".

Since I had joined Catawba Care's Speaker Bureau (a group of positive people who will tell their story at various events), our executive director thought I might like the chance to reach a larger audience. So going with Monica, one of the Prevention and Education staff, we went over to neighboring Lancaster county to be interviewed for their school system's television channel. The school has an actual TV studio and offers a class in television production where their students produce shows that are broadcast on TVs throughout the high schools in the county system.

With all my stage crew work, and all the media stuff I've done in my professional life, I really enjoyed this opportunity. I paid a lot of attention while the director gave instructions to the camera operators and decided which shots to incorporate into the program. Not only did I get to watch from behind the scenes for a while; but then I got miked (Mike got miked

), watched them change the set around, and then joined our interviewers, sitting across from them on the sofa. The two teenagers hosting "Teen Health Hotline" spent about 10 minutes questioning Monica about Catawba Care, STDs, and Hiv. Afterwards, they spent two 10 minute segments with me as I talked about what living with HIV for 20 years has meant.

In the grand scheme of things, this was a great learning opportunity for me. I paid close attention in case any of what I observed could be used as I work with Catawba Care staff on their video competition or their own set of videos for youtube and other uses. I also learned what 17 years old think about HIV and what questions they have about HIV.

Later than afternoon, I got to immediately use some of what I learned by being interviewed for the school
by being interviewed and filmed at Catawba Care.

I've been trying to help the Prevention/Education department put together a format for the videos so that we can just load in some opening video graphics, a welcome message from Tellus, a member of Catawba Care's Prevention Dpt, and then the client's personal story.

Of course, for me, I've already been telling my story (The Two Rings) so after doing my TV interview (while I was still all dressed up and looking bea-u-tee-ful LOL), I sat down and let Tellus record me giving my personal story.

After the personal story, we're working on a set of questions to go along with some special questions (like questions when the interviewee is newly diagnosed, a woman, a black, a Long Term Survivor, etc) for a question and answer time.

I think we have a good set of basic questions down which not only answer some questions a live audience might have; but that also gives the interviewee the chance to push forth a prevention message.

Right now, all these videos are on my YouTube channel -
http://youtube.com/leathermanmikieoh

Each video will end with Catawba Care contact information. Once we have a set of these videos done, we can upload them to a Catawba Care youtube channel.

The New Digs
Catawba Care was able to purchase their own building and have just been waiting (for months!) for the contractors to finish so that they could move into the new digs. Finally, only 2 months late, they finally moved to their new home!

Down one more exit on the highway, Catawba Care is now located just across the street from the county Social Security building. 500 Lakeshore Parkway Rock Hill, SC 29730

The new sign	The new building and parking lot
	Inside the front waiting room is just beautiful! With exposed beams, brickwork, and a fireplace, you'd think were were waiting in the ski lodge rather than in a clinic dealing with HIV.
I was so impressed by the "Grand Tour" that my case manager (Christine) took me on, that I plumb forgot to take any more pictures of the office spaces in the building. That's okay though. There will be an Open House event held in mid-November and I'll make sure to take a lot of pictures that day. (That'll give me something, next month, besides Thanksgiving to tell you about. )

When All Else Fails, Use Plan B or The Return of the Bad Luck
Because I had won a scholarship that paid for the registration fees, I've been planning for the longest time to go down to the state capital (1.5 hrs away) and spend two days at a state HIV/STD Conference.

Sadly however my car decided that it didn't want to go. Matter of fact, it really didn't want to come after my last trip to the agency, as it died on the highway on the way home. It has stalled on me several times over the last couple of months; but thankfully, as it did this time, cranked back up a few minutes later.

So I took it in to the mechanic who said he'd call in an hour and a half. When I hadn't heard back, I called him at the 3 hour mark, and was told they were putting it on the rack to look at it. Then when I physically went there after 5 hours, they still weren't looking at my car. Do you think these people even called me when they closed up for the night, leaving me without a car or without a reason? Heck, no.

Luckily I have already adjusted to dealing with my bad luck curse, so like a smart boy, I was already making others arrangements (viola! My Plan B plan) to ride down with a of group of workers from Catawba Care.

2010 HIV/STD Conference

Awhile back, with a request letter and a letter of recommendation, I was awarded a scholarship to attend the 2 day South Carolina HIV/AIDS Conference to be held here at the end of October.

This conference gathers people from HIV clinics, health clinics, AIDS Service Organizations, drug representatives, pharmacies, advocates and leaders throughout SC, to attend seminars and keynotes speakers discussing the future of treatment, funding and policy for handling the HIV epidemic. This year's theme is "Advocating for People Living with HIV/AIDS: Policy and Personal Perspective".

Day One

Because we got there early and checked in, we were able to spend quite a bit of time in the vendors room. Although I didn't know many of the reps, the Catawba Care staff sure did. (Although I did know one of the people from Long's Pharmacy because they occasionally called to renew my prescriptions.

)

Heather and Cecilio seem pretty perky to have gotten up so early to be in Columbia by 8am.

Going through the Vendor Exhibition Room, not only did I pick up a lot of information and pamphlets; but I also got myself a bag of "swag". I got pens and markers, pill holders and mouse pads, buttons and stickers, and even a few condom packets (to see how other organizations make up their packages

The keynote speaker opening the conference was Laura Hanen, who spoke about "Health Care Reform and HIV/AIDS". Although there's still lot of doubt as to how the reform is going to affect HIV clinics and programs like ADAP (that provides HIV meds to those with financial needs) and Ryan White (which funds health care, housing and various other HIV-related issues and items) and it means agencies are going to have to be vigilant, flexible and advocating even harder for patient rights and funds to care for their patients.

Since my interests were different from the staff (who preferred more medical knowledge about HIV and STDs), for my first meeting I left the group and headed over to "May I have a condom, please?" presented by Sarah Kershner. Although this seminar was mainly about an informal study researching the availability of condoms for teens to purchase, since I had been passing out so many free condoms at the fairs this summer, I figured this would be interesting - and it was! Not only did I learn a lot about the access to condoms that teens have; but I realized ways I can help overcome those hurdles and ways to increase the availability of condoms to the public.

For the second morning seminar, I meet up with the ladies from Catawba Care as we attended "Counseling those in Denial" presented by Samuel Boone and Pam Sykes. Though I wish these speakers had gone a bit further with their material, I enjoyed this one too. Mr. Boone is a retired military chaplain who spoke to how many military people when diagnosed often become quite despondent and turn to the chaplains speaking of suicide. Ms. Sykes told her life story of living with HIV and how for many years she was in denial and what her thoughts were like during those times and intervention methods that worked and didn't work.

I was very interested in listening to her account as it closely paralleled mine in many respects (diagnosed in 92; caregiver to her husband who passed away, like me with Randy; her traumatic stay in the hospital with PCP in 99, me in 98). Although she chose to ignore her illness for many years, I had, with a realistic viewpoint, taken the opposite approach and tackled handling my life and my illness, and yet here we both were nearly 20 years later contributing as best with can with our time and our life stories.

We jumped up with the rest of the Catawba Care group and dug in to a huge lunch buffet that was served outside the large meeting room. The menu consisted of beef kabobs and grilled veggies (not near as good as the ones I do at home), salad, grilled chicken, rolls, and a hug spread of cakes and pies.

MMMM
The lemon meringue was extra tangy and extra yummy!

Another keynote speaker spoke during the lunch hour about the STD "crisis". Thankfully he chose not to go into all the gory details about STDs; but talked about the rising numbers, the lack of funds, and what the health care reform changes might entail.

Cecilio and Denise (from Prevention) along with Glenda (one of the RNs) attended today...

along with Naina (the new RN, who was the one to stab me for my blood tests the other day along with the flu shot and a pneumonia vaccination) and Heather (Medical Case Manager).

Naina and Heather try to decide what meetings to attend in the afternoon.

Denise and I spent the afternoon attending back-to-back seminars presented by Eric Rowles and Pat Key. The first one was called "The Millennials: Youth Culture 2010" followed by "Music Power and Action: Using music and video as powerful prevention tools". Together these seminars discussed the type of people we are messaging now (the Millennials) and the up-and-coming generation (only 8 yrs old now and still unnamed) along with how music and video - and texting - are prime components of reaching the next generations to warn them about STDs and HIV.

While I was at the conference, my Mom and Dennis graciously helped take care of the car problems. Visiting the repair shop in person, they were able to get the manger to give them a good deal on the repairs (it wasn't a fuel problem or the ignition control module, but an oil leak that was shorting out the spark plugs), get a free oil change for later - and they got the car actually repaired within a few hours. By the time I got home from the first day of the conference, the car was back. I still didn't trust it enough to drive all the way down to Columbia; but I drove it down to Rock Hill to carpool with the Catawba Care people the following morning.

Day Two

While the Catawba crew met up and gnoshed on the last of breakfast (Glenda had to work today, so we were joined by our friend Latisha

, the Case Manager Supervisor), we listened to the opening keynote speaker Mitchell Warren, who spoke about "Updates, Advocacy and Information on Biomedical HIV prevention". This speech was about strategies and the mechanisms of HIV prevention like condoms, microbicides, and PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis).

For the first seminar of the day, I attended part one of Ed Johnson's "Relationship between Substance Abuse, Coming Out, and Other Risk Factors". This very interesting talk was geared to explaining about how people identify their sexuality and what hurdles they encounter announcing an orientation than the norm of heterosexuality and how that frequently leads to bad self-esteem and risky behavior.

I would have liked to have stuck around for part two of Mr. Johnson's speech, but I'm sure glad I went to the next one I had chosen. Moving over to "Creating a Community of Story Tellers to combat HIV/AIDS Stigma" from Vanessa Johnson turned out to be a great choice. Through geared to discussing how her agency could conduct 3-day workshops to help clients tell their life story and learning how they arrived where they did often through hereditary traits, what I was able to take away were excellent ideas and directions to use for the videos I am helping Catawba Care to create. As soon as I get my notes typed up, I plan to share them with the staff so we can utilize these great ideas.

It was then time to break for another delicious lunch. BBQ pork, fried chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, biscuits, collard greens, and green beans. And to top off such a Southern-style meal, sweet tea. We were joined by a former Catawba Care staff member, Mary Jane (you can just see her blonde here on the right side of this picture).

The keynote speaker during the luncheon on day two, Kathie Hiers, was incredibly informative and interesting as her topic was the "Southern Perspective on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic and the National AIDS Strategy". Hailing from Alabama, as the only Southerner on the president's AIDS council, Ms. Hiers told us staggering numbers of how HIV has and still is disproportionately affecting the Southern states. While having ultra-conservative and religious-minded legislatures accounts for some of the funding issues in addressing HIV in the South, the basic numbers show that HIV is just a huge problem for the South. For example, 92% of the states that have ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting lists are in the South. 55% of gay men in America diagnosed with HIV live in the South. 52% of all blacks who are diagnosed with HIV live in Southern states, while blacks only comprise 20% of the Southern population.

After lunch and the speaker, the final seminar I attended was "Sext: Using Youth Activists and New Media to Increase Access to Contraception" by Lottie McLorin and India Walters. Similar to a seminar yesterday, this meeting discussed teens accessing birth control; and just like yesterday, it was shown how applicable this topic was to dealing with STDs and HIV also. This was another good seminar as it discussed tactics using Facebook and texting to reach people and to continue educating after they left you. This was some of the same information I discussed with our Prevention several months ago and what has promoted us to beginning to create our own set of videos. I plan to include my notes from this seminar in the information I will be giving back to Catawba Care.

Closing out the conference, a speaker I had heard earlier in the day, Vanessa Johnson spoke about "Advocating for People Living with HIV/AIDS: Policy and Personal Perspective", which was the theme of the entire conference this year. As an HIV+ person herself, she touched on why many of the organizations represented by the people attending the conference were formed in the first place - to take care of and to advocate for people infected with HIV. Sadly, having seen some ASOs around the nation (like the one up in Charlotte) become overwhelmed with just being another "business", greed and corruption have destroyed some agencies as they lost sight of the people they were designed to help - not to mention fighting the stigma this disease has always engendered against those infected, or the other intrinsic problems that resulted in those people engaging in the risky behavior that got them infected in the first. Sadly, as much as I would like HIV/AIDS to be treated no different than some other disease, like say diabetes for instance, the accompanying stigma (against gays, black, drug users) or the personal issues (coming out, recovering, rejection by families and communities) can be too overwhelming and requires our society to treat this disease and all it's associated problems differently than any other illness. Ms. Johnson just reminded the crowd that the people at the core of this issue, the people actually infected and HIV positive, are no different than any other people with any other problems, and are deserving of proper treatment; but that because of the surrounding stigma, it takes extra advocacy to get that proper treatment.

Throughout the conference, I met and heard speakers who frequently had a story similar to mine. Many of us were diagnosed in the early 90s (many in 1992), by 1998 or 99 we had all been hospitalized with OIs (opportunistic infections), most of us had lost partners, and now nearly 20 years later, we were all attending a conference in SC and doing various jobs all trying to treat, prevent or educate about HIV.

The certificates that I received for attending the conference.

Although I almost gave up and just didn't go because of my car problems, I'm glad things worked out because I enjoyed the conference seminars and learned a lot. I was also very glad that I got to go with the staff from Catawba Care - and not just because I carpooled with them because my car was having problems either. Even though I was an interloper into the business relationships of the staffers and attended some of the meetings on my own, we shared all the keynote speeches and lunches together. Whenever we were attending the same seminar, they sat with me. It was really nice getting to know them better, and they definitely made me feel like I belonged with them. It's not like I was expecting them to pity me (like the poor pitiful client or "AIDS patient"), and I knew they wouldn't have been rude to me; but they really treated me like part of the Catawba Care family.

So I'd like to give a big shout-out to my two new "moms"

(I just keep collecting moms, don't I?

) Naina and Heather, and to tell Denise and Cecilio to quit laughing at the crazy pictures on the internet.

But most of all, I'd like to thank them for the rides to and from the conference (thanks Cecilio and Naina!!) and for being so friendly. I also have to throw out a few more thanks to Anita (the exe director) and Christine (my case mgr) for suggesting that I go to the conference, for giving me such nice recommendations, and for helping me get a ride so I didn't miss out on such a great learning opportunity.

Well, now I need to go transcribe my scribblings, so that I can present what I learned to the staff back at Catawba Care, edit up another client video, and put together a list of the judging criteria for the World AIDS Day video competition.

Maybe it's no wonder the guys treated me like a co-worker - too bad I'm not getting a paycheck though.

Week Five:

Updated:

leatherman
@reigningpages.com