Just a short I-actually-did-something-with-my-flippin'-life entry here. I'm a bit spent, all things considered (funny word, 'spent.' Although it is one you can use for anyone exhausted off his or her feet, it is also one of those words you only really hear in the sexual sense. Alas, no, this is not to be for our old Red) so I don't know how long I'll let this get.

Reason I'm tired--and what I did with the little Sunday here---is I went to AIDS walk Wisconsin, a 10K walk that collects money for researching AIDS treatments and cures, and also for care for persons currently with HIV/AIDS in the state. This has been my second year going to this event (I really rather wonder if I do have an entry for last year. Figures, my readers would have more knowledge than I) and, as it was last year, the whole thing was a blast. Yea, usually you can't get me to move 2 meters for shit, but get a good cause with a better crowd, and I'll go for it.

Last year's walk was in Madison, a city I'm becoming slowly familiar with. Last year's walk was also unseasonably warm. It also featured me being dense enough to wear my boots which--no matter how "broken-in" they may be, still break me if they're being worn for 10K. This year I wore Converse (alas, my last pair... once these break down, we're off to find another brand... fuck you, Nike mergers) which was quite nice. Otherwise? We had Milwaukee and freezing lake wind, and threats of rain.

This is only the second time I've been to Milwaukee. The city intrigues me, at least--all factories, it seems like it has more dark secrets than nice memories. I think I'm destined to think of it half as a fiction. A city always licking its post-Dahmer wounds.

One can romance quite easy cities she doesn't belong to. Every city has a song, a tune that comes out different for each visitor or native. Spokane always sounded like desperation, Madison like college, Seattle like ocean freighters and an old socialist spirit. Milwaukee's seems like factories and Dahmer. And I'm probably going to hear about this from some Milwaukee native. And I probably will hear about it from myself in the future, after I visit there more. But first impressions are always, at the least, entertaining.

It turned out not to be as cold as it seemed at the beginning. We started out at a point where a lot of rain and wind caught you, but as you went along the route, the sun caught your back. It became no longer that intollerable cold that makes you just want to run the whole freakin' 10K, but rather that pleasant dull shiver. I hate the cold, but sometimes that cold that's beyond a chill, but barely--that cold that's just all in your shoulderblades, hands, head and collarbone--sometimes that's good, like a scratchy reminder that yea, you're still alive.

And it was good, then, to be so alive--the route wound through parks mainly, occasionally by old manor-like houses (I remember wondering how Milwaukee might have gentry) and a lighthouse. Madison's route went by businesses and houses, and Milwaukee's choice to be all parks, while beautiful in the not-quite-fall, was a bit disappointing. I'd have loved to see more of the city proper--but perhaps my first impressions are right, and no one wants to walk a loop of factories.

Oh, and (see, I didn't stay long, did I?) I'm glad to see you're still alive, man, and enjoying your new freedom.