All right... First of all, my laptop now works. Turns out it was, actually, kinda my fault. Something I downloaded a while ago had an issue in it and any time I opened it, it would trash my computer...Despite the fact that we had purchased a full year subscription to Norton Anti-Virus. So I downloaded an anti-virus that I trust and everything is back to normal. That being said, it wasn't COMPLETELY my fault. There was something else going on: I had an anti-virus that I had to pay for (now I have one that's free), I took it in several times (they never caught anything even though I never took it off my computer and they, SUPPOSEDLY, had it scanned), and they still had to replace my cord-jack again.

But I have my computer back again and it's all shiny and happy. The pain is about something completely different.

So... Yesterday, Sunday, was AIDS Walk. I work it, with my troupe, every year. We're volunteers in the Quilt/Path of Remembrance/Names Project area. We used to only work Quilts/Names Project, but we always ended up building the Path so it was just combined into our area.

The path is made up of little pieces of paper that people have written notes on to loved ones, or people they want remembered. Those used to then be staked into the ground. We would make intricate patterns out of the ones of previous years, leaving space for the ones that would be made that year as well. Two years ago, they told us we should leave as few holes as possible. That was difficult, but we thought we had managed. Apparently not. Last year, they gave us an ultimatum: no staking things into the ground. They didn't tell us before, just sprung it on us when we arrived. We ended up building some strange edifice and taping the stakes to it. This year, our area manager knew ahead of time and she & her brother built an actual walk with cross-hatch fencing and wood. It was really awesome.

Here is where the comedy of errors really happens: the Names Project. The Names Project is made up of a series of portraits that we have to hang up on some hinged boards. They're very sturdy and really kinda awesome, but they're also really heavy. One of our volunteers dropped them on his toe twice. It was kinda scary. We have to carry these heavy boards over to a tent, set them up, and then (using hammers and nails) put up a bunch of pictures. These pictures come out of two crates that we have to open. Two very HEAVY crates that we have to move before we open them. Every year, without fail, they tell us that we have to move these heavy crates by ourselves and that no, we cannot have a dolly to move them. Sure enough, half an hour later, we get a dolly. Half an hour after that, they realize we need wrenches to open the crates. We've been doing this for a very long time, however, and have started bringing our own.

That being said, they didn't give us nearly enough people (we had seven people from the get-go) to do those two and the last area. They usually give us too many people, but they, apparently, decided that we didn't really need as many volunteers until the sun came up, when about twenty other people in bright yellow shirts descended upon our area to assist. After we had done all of the hard things.

The last area, is the quilts. We have four panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt: the huge quilt that's so big, they can no longer get it all together. In fact, the last time they got it all together was about ten years ago on the lawn in Washington DC. Since then, they have gotten many MANY more panels. We have four of them. At least, we used to. Last year, along with the strange path edifice, they gave us frames from which we were supposed to hang two of the quilts... Once we figured out how to make it. This year, we had those two frames (which were a really nice set-up that all fit together nicely) as well as a new frame made entirely of pipes they found, corner joints, and 50 lb-120 lb "bases". This new frame was supposed to hold the panels that the runners/walkers get to sign every year. Meaning that we had to hang eight panels from a makeshift frame with zip ties that weren't actually ours.

It's okay, we're used to it. One of the quilts is used to mark the start of the walking portion of the AIDS Walk. Basically, eight people fold this delicate quilt into a "lotus" figure, walk it over to the start, unfold it while someone releases white doves, and then walk it back over to our area to lay it out on the plastic that protects it from the grass. Anyway, last year, when they gave us the frames for the quilts, they told us that we should leave one of the frames empty, and down, and attach that quilt to the frame after we open it and raise it as a "beacon". We laughed at them. As soon as the walk starts, we lose all of our volunteers. That stunt would be next to impossible at that time.

I'm in pain because I got to sleep at two am on sunday (through next to no fault of my own) and had to be at the walk by 5:30. We didn't have time to get breakfast, but we did get to mainline some caffeine before we left the house. My roommate and I got there a little after 5:30, checked in to make sure our shirts were already retrieved for us, and wandered over to the area. Same area, every year, but we still got asked (by three separate people) if we knew where we were going. We got to our area, were handed our shirts, and told to go get all of our supplies out of the truck. Usually, all of our stuff was on the sidewalk, but not this year. We got to get it out of the truck ourselves. Basically, the two smallest people (myself and another supervisor) got to climb into the truck and hand things down to some volunteers (my roommate [still sore about that] and another member of our troupe [not caring so much]). Then we got to jump out of the truck and carry things back. They had pallets and hand "fork-lifts", which we asked to use, but they had to ask if we could use them (read: "by the time we find out, you'll already be done"). Then we had to carry the heavy boards, laugh at the guy who said we were carrying the crates over to the tent, start to put up the boards, build frames (two old, one new), put up portraits, label said portraits, figure out how to hang a whole new set of things, and deal with the fluctuating number of volunteers before we even got to sit down for a few minutes. We finally got to eat somewhere around 8:15 am. One doughnut. After almost three hours of hard work and heavy lifting. Then we got to sit in direct sunlight for another two hours before we got to take an actual break (after finding a group of people to man our station of course). By that time, the sponsors of the walk were already breaking down their booths. Shortly after our ten minute break (it was supposed to be fifteen but there was no point) we got to break down our area as well.

Basically: we did about five hours of hard work (lifting weights upwards of a hundred pounds and carrying them more than a hundred yards multiple times throughout the day) in the nearly blistering heat (my roommate got a sunburn and I nearly had a heat stroke) and got to see next to nothing. We didn't get coffee. They never fed us. We didn't get many "balloons". Four is just not enough. And we didn't even get to get one of the cans of "3D" (really, what DOES 3D taste like?). I had no idea what it was, but it looked interesting. Other people in our group got to go around and got a lot of stuff, including the "3D", but we couldn't leave unless we found someone to man our stations and no one wanted to do that because there was no shade where we were.

Don't get me wrong, I love working AIDS Walk. It makes me feel great just to be there and to help so many people feel good about everything. It's just that, I like to be able to wander around and look at things. It always makes me giggle to go home and look at all of the things I get. Honestly, who needs strawberry-scented, chocolate-flavored, extra-strength, gel with massaging anti-biotic beads, anyway? Really? And do I really need a rainbow tie-dyed Frisbee? Especially when it comes with a soda (claimed to be a new flavor of some current brand) with russian propaganda on it? But it's always fun to get them and look at them later.

I love AIDS Walk and I love working it, but it gets more ridiculous every year. We seriously considered taking over the music station when they started playing a techno remix of Michael Jackson's "Thiller", but we knew that, if we did, that would be a whole new thing for us to be in charge of next year.

Now, I hurt everywhere!!! My shoulders feel like they are on fire. I've had three coffees and like seven sodas today and I still spent most of the day in a haze. My thighs hurt if I sit or stand too long, when I get up or sit down, and when I walk in any direction. My back feels like it wants to give out and my head is telling me to just give in. Also, my left hand randomly shoots lightning up my arm for some strange reason.


**I hope that this is okay. I think I got all potentially offensive words out of here, but if I missed some could you tell me? I will remove them. I have an issue being able to tell because I am not offended by much and there is next to no subject that is taboo. Therefore, please tell me of any word that you have a problem with and, if I can remove it, I will. Obviously, I cannot remove the word AIDS, but I may have missed other words that could be construed as offensive. Please tell me and I will do my best.