Now that's a pretty good weekend

What a great weekend. The ACTION workshop on Saturday was wonderfully enlightening. Dr. Jorge Rodriguez explained the history and science of HIV and AIDS and the medicines out there that has literally given folks with HIV and AIDS a new lease on life. I can see why he'll be appearing on The View on February 13 to share similar information--he's funny, encouraging, and educational. The most moving part of the workshop was hearing from four CarePartners (the folks with HIV receiving a CareTeam community). There were two women and two men and, against the "Gay Cancer" stereotype, only one was a gay man. They were different ages and personalities with different stories of how they acquired HIV, but bottom line, they all were affected by the stigma, rejection, and isolation. To hear their stories moved me to tears. And to sign up.

The day ended on another high note as my man, Georges St. Pierre, beat BJ Penn in the UFC Welterweight title fight. It was a great fight and demonstrated what an amazing athlete St. Pierre is. I watched a special on his training last Wednesday and it was crazy rigorous and focused, right down to keeping a schedule on Vegas time (where the fight was held) in Montreal (where he was training). Besides his skill and dedication, he's one of my favorite fighters because he's brings a level of class and honor to fighting. He doesn't trashtalk and wears a suit when arriving to the event. I hate the stereotype that people who love MMA are all bar-brawlers who do it for the joy of hurting someone. It takes major skill and I appreciate that it's being recognized as a legitimate challenging sport more and more. The other great fight for me was the Lyoto Machida/Thiago Silva fight. I was in the camp that thought unbeaten Machida was a skilled, yet boring fighter, reticent to be agressive. But his awesome KO of Silva in the first round convinced me to join the team clamoring for a title shot for him.

And the final topper: the Steelers won the Super Bowl! And I even won $40 in my SuperBowl Squares. Hooray for me!

The only thing that could have made this weekend any better was a third day where I got everything organized, but I'm not complaining...I'll take a weekend like this anytime.

Happy Monday everyone!