3 R's-- Reading, Rodeo and a Real good time!

I have basically been going non-stop since Wednesday. First off, I did HIV testing at UCA in Conway on Wednesday and Thursday. I recently became re-certified to do testing and this was my first chance to really get back into providing this rewarding service. I am a big believer that EVERYONE should know their status and it was awesome to see how many young people came out to be tested. Yolanda, Bill (both from Arkansas AIDS Foundation) and I performed about 60 tests and had a great time chatting on the rides back-and-forth. I also got to see Courtney Hampton from DHHS on campus and to help promote the upcoming AIDS Walk.

Thursday night, I headed over to Easy Streets for the Literary Pride book club to meet Josh Dagon in town for the Arkansas Literary Festival and to meet the members of the book club. J.D. was a total delight--very easy to talk with and even easier on the eyes! I want to give major kudos to Amos for getting both J.D. and Andrew Holleran (the author of the first gay novel I ever read, Dancer from the Dance) here to Little Rock. Saturday morning I got to attend the Literary Festival for a reading from Andrew's latest work, Grief. Here is a picture of me and both authors.

Friday night, I headed over to Sidetracks for the Rodeo in the Rock kick-off party and got to hang out with a lot of great people including LRCP board member Janis Walters, Cornelius Mabin of The Body Politic and even ran into my good friend Faith Sawyer-Tindle from NWA GLBT community center. There were a lot of people at the event to kick off the weekend's festivities and I think a good time was had by all.

On Saturday and Sunday I got to attend my first-ever gay rodeo! I had a great time and met a lot of very cool people and had the chance to see a lot of familiar faces like Randi Romo of CAR, Sarah Scanlon of HRC, all of the great folks of DSRA, Donna, Faith, Joney and Chris of NWA GLBT CC, and even ran into Cody Bray LRCP's Entertainment Coordinator. Cody, his friend Brian and I went out to The Factory Saturday night after the rodeo. Here are a couple of pics of us.

All-in-all, it was a great weekend and I am a bit wore out from all of the fun. I guess this weekend was a good chance to test my stamina for all of the events that are coming up...between now and the end of June we have Drag Idol, Pride Idol, Theatre night, the AIDS Walk, Capital Pride, The NWA GLBT CC gala, Pride Week, and Conway Pride.