Sitting here in my bed at the Holiday Inn in San Francisco, I find myself exhausted from a day filled with both fun and not so fun moments. The apartment search has turned out to be much more competitive that I had been anticipating. We looked at two places yesterday that we were really excited about - both in the Castro and in our price range (which, believe me, is AMAZING). The ad for the place had gone up that morning and we were the second group to look at the place - so we didn't think that haste was so important. We learned the hard way: they both had been rented out to people other than us before the end of the business day.

I found this news out today after attending a fantastic session at the ISAACS Conference presented by Cathy Cohen, a wonderful black Poltical Scientist at the University of Chicago whose analysis of political movements and the "down low" was dead-on. Specifically she teased apart comments from Bill Cosby referring to young black men and women as "knuckleheads" who can't speak English resonated with me and my own concerns for the Gay and Lesbian political movement. Groups like with HRC have fought hard to say similar things: we're just like you, we have manners, we have money, etc. It was really awesome to make some clear connections between racism and homophobia - and really awesome to hear it coming from a Political Scientist.

Okay so back to the apartment search. After Cohen's talk, I got the message about the two apartments in the Castro. I was upset - to say the least. I was hoping that our search had finally come to an end. We had an appointment, though, at 1:30 that afternoon to check out a decent place in an OK location - so all was not lost. Me and Troy left the conference early and went to the computer lab to try to find a few more potentials. With a few numbers in hand, we made our way to the subway station - I was starting to fall apart. I just really couldn't handle the stress of this search at that moment. But really it all caved in when, after waiting for 30 minutes, we realized the "M" line to get us to the next apartment was broken down. What the fuck? What Karma hell did we fall into? Needless to say, we missed our 1:30 PM appointment.

With Troy's support I managed to get one with my day and meet with Eric Rofes as scheduled. We saw a play he produced the previous evening called "Test / Positive / Now: The Infection Monologues." The play was really fascinating and touched on a variety of really compelling issues dealing with HIV+ men. Eric's been doing research on his own on gay men who've recently tested positive and from the stories he has been gathering he has produced this play. The play didn't try to sugar coat and of the issues or these men's experiences. None were denied their own complex realities and relationships with their diagnoses. One thing I found interesting was one character's struggle with Public Health officials and other gay men talking about HIV Prevention and the decision to practice safe sex in such calculated, rational ways. When we discuss issues about safe sex we're almost always in classroom-like settings where thinking rationally isn't hard to do - but in the bedroom, this is no longer the case.

One character also argued that, as long as HIV exists without a vaccine, new infections will continue to happen amung gay men. We will always make mistakes because we're human. To expect us to do otherwise is unrealistic. This, I think, is especially true in an era when HIV is more like a chronic, manageable disease rather than a terminal illness - the life/death impetus to use a condom simply isn't there as it used to be. I was really honored to be able to see this play in its first incarnation - Eric plans to more than double the cast in the near future as his research continues to expand.

Eric and I had coffee and discussed my upcoming move to San Francisco. He's such a fantastic guy / thinker - I'm SO excited to be in the same city as him and his colleagues!!!

Our meeting cheered me up so I met back up with Troy to have a few cocktails in the Castro. We went to Bar on Castro where drinks are 2 for $4 during Happy Hour. 6 drinks later, I went home to rest and he stayed in the Castro to hang out / have fun. After a few hours I called Troy and he sounded like he was having quite a fantastic time - in fact he had consumed about 8 strong drinks after my departure. I was simultaneously checking out Craigslist and found a fantastic listing the Castro - a bit pricey, but a good listing. After making an appointment tomorrow to check the place out, I hopped in a cab to rescue Troy / check out the exterior of the building. Troy was fine and the apartment looks great - at least from the outside. We'll see tomorrow if it lives up to its exterior. It's literally a 4 minute walk from the apartment to the bars in Castro - quite excited about that potential (as is Troy, since he wants to wait tables in that area).

Tomorrow's Agenda:

11:30 Apartment Viewing

1:30 - 5:00 PM: Gay and Lesbian Film Festival - "The End Of AIDS: The Search for a Vaccine" and "The D Word" (a parody featuring lesbian comedian Marga Gomez of the Showtime series, "The L Word").

7:00 PM: Dyke March?

10:00 PM: The Pink Party

12:00 AM: The "Drunk and Horny" Party. Maybe :)