Listen, I get it! We are all doing our own thing. . . outreach, prevention, testing and much more. Kudos to all of you who are getting their hands in the mix of the work that is necessary to care for those living with HIV/AIDS and necessary to educate those not living with HIV/AIDS to prevent contracting this virus and other STI's / STD's as well as to combat stigma and to get tested!

On a serious note. . . I hear the following being repeated a lot (in fact I hear myself saying this too) . . . "UGH! Why, why, why is HIV/AIDS conversation swept under the rug? Why is no one talking about it anymore? Why has our nation. . . why has the world gone quiet on this epidemic?" And then we point the finger of blame. . .

So, rather than being one of the cooks in the kitchen complaining about the problem by pointing a finger, I have decided to team up with five other incredible HIV/AIDS activists/advocates to begin a global trend setting Twitter initiative and our vision is to reignite the conversation of HIV/AIDS: HashTag HIV: Let's Trend Until the End. Reality is, I need to point the finger back on myself, because I have not been much of a team player, because for too long I was doing my own thing. It is time for me to make a change and become a team player and that change starts right now and I hope you will follow.

Many of you probably know who we are: There is me - Daniel Bauer (escape artist and founder of LivingPozitively.com), Robert Breining (Founder and Host of Poz I Am Radio / Social Network), Jeromy Dunn (Founder of PozitivelySpeaking.com and Co-host, Poz I Am Radio), Mitch Knapp (HIV Activist in the rural south), Aaron Matthew Laxton (YouTube super-star and founder of My HIV Journey), and Kevin Maloney (Founder of Rise Up to HIV and an employee at Community Access National Network

So what's #HIV: Let's Trend Until the End all about: We believe as a team that millions and millions of people are using Twitter to quickly disseminate information about the hottest topics people are talking about! We believe that together, as a community, we can set #HIV, #AIDS as a Twitter trend catapulting awareness back to the top of conversation around the world!

So here's where you come in. . . it's time to become a team player. During the week of the International AIDS Conference (July 22-27, 2012 in Washington, DC) we are asking everyone with a Twitter account to consistently and frequently use the hashtags: #HIV #AIDS and #IAC in all your Tweets. If you do not have a Twitter account, maybe it's time to get one, even if it's just for the purpose of helping to set the trend. You can simply go to www.twitter.com and sign up!

The HashTagHIV Team will be Tweeting from now on (and forever) to help set this trend. . . so please follow @HashTagHIV to get the latest information, updates and stats about how we are doing! Also, please, please add yourself to the HashTag HIV Facebook event to let the world know you and/or your organization is signing up as a team player!

Reality is we [six guys] can't do this alone. YOU. . . YOUR ORGANIZATION. .. YOUR FRIENDS are going to be the key elements of making this CAMPAIGN A SUCCESS!

So TEAMWORK - ACTIVATE! Let's Set the Trend!!!!  Together we will reignite the conversation about #HIV #AIDS!

I am Daniel, and I am living pozitively! Thank you for following my blog.

HIV-positive New York magician and public speaker Daniel Bauer was interviewed by PositiveLIte.com’ Bob Leahy in September 2011 here.   Read about his upcoming New York show Beyond Belief here 

In the Summer of 2008, I received a curious package from Bonnie Goldman, the editor of TheBody.com. Inside was a Flip video camera, what was then a new-fangled device that allowed you to take video footage with a camera the size of a pack of cigarettes.

It came with a simple note. “I think you should try this,” it said.

How did she know? I wondered. I had never mentioned to her that I once taped a special for my newborn niece, back when video cameras were the size of footballs and editing consisted of painstakingly recording segments from one VCR to another. “Carly’s Video” consisted of magic tricks, songs and a dramatic reading of “Yurtle the Turtle.”

And yet, Bonnie had the notion that I might have some fun documenting my life as a gay man living with HIV. Immediately, I bought editing software online and started to learn it. But I had my doubts.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about my life, I complained to her in a phone call to her New York office. And a lot of it, like my ongoing struggle with drug addiction, was downright seedy.

 “Tell the truth,” she said. “The more honest you are, the better it will be.”

I trusted her judgment. In my writing for TheBody over the previous years, Bonnie had always demanded the best of me. We regularly debated topics and my approach to my written pieces, and anything that sounded too easy, that contained more platitudes than honest emotion, was questioned. The same would hold true for the video episodes that I quickly began producing.

In September of 2008, “My Fabulous Disease” premiered on TheBody.com. The first episode was an introduction to my life, and already I was being playful with the camera and the potential of video. It concluded with the mantra that Bonnie had instilled in me. “I can’t promise this will always be entertaining,” I said. “But I can promise I will always be honest. So. Let’s see what happens…”

Since then, plenty has happened. When I spent time in Michigan caring for a brother dying of cancer, the camera was there. When I was treated for facial lipoatrophy by getting injections of facial filler, I brought the camera. For everything from my thoughts on barebacking to touring a gay sex club to drug relapses to HIV criminalization to the international AIDS conference in Vienna, I documented everything using the inventive gift sent to me by Bonnie Goldman.

When Bonnie left TheBody a few years ago, I missed her counsel and her friendship. She was maddeningly hard to reach in the two years after, and I wondered if our friendship had been purely professional.

And then the news, in January of 2011, that Bonnie had died after a long struggle with cancer. She had fought it privately, and I felt ashamed for having wanted more contact during what was clearly a difficult time.

Only now, more than a year after her passing, am I finally writing about her death, something so deeply felt I haven’t found the words. I am searching for them still. Life keeps showing up. New people populate it, projects come and go, video episodes of My Fabulous Disease are made. And it has been too long since I have said her name out loud. Bonnie. Bonnie Goldman.

We all come across things, tokens from a person, from a life we treasured but has faded from view. A photograph on a shelf that we pass in the hallway. A shirt in the closet. A book. A recipe.

A broken video camera that has outlived its purpose, that I cannot bear to throw away.

This article first appeared on Mark's blog, My Fabulous Disease.

The month of August went from one lazy hot day to the next. I had gone to the beach a few times. I was also invited  to join my friend and her family on a trip they make each year to the Izu Peninsula. It was such a great feeling being in a family setting with such good friends and their kids. We did lots of snorkeling in the ocean. The water was so clear you could see all kinds of fish and plant life.

It was the first time to be away from my home since being diagnosed, and I worried about staying on schedule with my meds. My friend knew my situation and said she too had to take pills every day, and she would help me to stay on track.

It was a great trip for me and it was so nice to have a change of scenery. 

September had arrived and I was excited about the tweetUp coming up. But this month had taken on new meaning for me.  I couldn't help  thinking how sick I was a year ago, not knowing the full extent of my  illness. Such a year, but I had come so far!  I had returned to health and had put on twenty pounds.

Many nights I would reflect on my past situation and felt compelled to write about it. I would have gone to my twitter friend @viraloadwarrior for advice, but he had stopped tweeting and I couldn’t get hold of him. He wrote for Positive Lite.com and I thought maybe I could tell my story there. Another good friend from there was @WayneB54.  Wayne really grabbed my attention when on Fathers Day I tweeted "Happy Fathers Day!" and he was the first to reply back with "Thanks son!"  It threw me for a loop because in real life my fathers name is Wayne, last initial "B."

He was very supportive of the idea of writing, so I contacted two other guys I knew were with PositiveLite.com, Bob and Brian. They  replied back with the go ahead to write my first draft.

I'm not sure if I was expecting such great support of, but now felt like I really should do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to do it. These were painful memories.

In any event, the tweetUp was coming up and it made for a convenient distraction. I had got a reservation for holding it in Shibuya  at RED.  I told the manager maybe around ten people. He was fine with my vagueness, since he was a friend. People started tweeting back and forth about it and Frank (left, with Brian)  would refer some of the twitter people to me for details. Kim too was on board about promoting it and, needless to say, my followers on twitter were growing. I was getting really excited about all the people that were taking an interest in it.

For me it was more than just a tweetUp.  It was me celebrating my health. It was me returning to a social life with new friends. It was me thinking of a bad day one year ago in September and it was me making a choice not to let that memory bring me down.

About that time, the company that fired me for having HIV, contacted me about returning on a temporary basis. The teachers were not so keen on the person they found to replace me and  they all wanted me back, once a week, for teaching some of the little kids in the morning  and two after school kids in the afternoon. It was an awkward request. I had much bitterness after they had let me go, but over the course of a year a lot of those feelings had gone. I knew the extra money would help so I took them up on it.

It was strange at first but I soon snapped back into teacher mode.

The day before the Shibuya tweetup I went to RED to update the manager.  I told him I thought the number might be over ten now but less than twenty. He seemed not too concerned and told me we could have the whole area around the bar.

The next day, I wanted to get there early to greet people as they arrived.  Most people stayed on their feet, going from one group and conversation to the next. It was a great social atmosphere. First there were ten, then twenty, and before the night ended we had over thirty people. It was so great to meet so many new people and forge new friendships. There was such a buzz of people visiting it was hard to hear at times.

I felt so excited at the success of the tweetUp.  Many peoplesaud that it was one of the best ones they had ever attended. One twitter friend called @Locohama even wrote about it the next day and posted a video.  The prospect of doing another was already being talked about for around Halloween.

Before I could think about that I knew I wanted to start writing my story. At first I thought I could do it in just one article for PositiveLite.com. However the more I worked on an outline the larger the story got. I was talking about a year’s worth of stories, and this being my final installment, I can say many were never shared.

I was doing so well at the time with my health, mental frame of mind, new friends, etc., that I was finding it difficult to go back and remember much that had happened in that year.  I would write a few sentences and then need to put it down and catch my breath. I wanted my story to be about the people I met, the support I received from family and friends, and how God carried me threw it.

I have met so many great people through this chapter of my life. I am not sure I would change anything. To the people here on twitter and at PositiveLite.com, you have all been truly awesome. You have my forever grateful heart, respect, and prayers.

Thank you!

One final point: I struggled a bit with how to start Part One, and as dorky as it sounded to me, I began to write...

"Pt,1 My first year with HIV . . . I'm just your everyday guy, I'd like to think."

Editior’s Note. Brian, it's been a delight to work with you on this series. We’ve all learned so much along the way, us about Japan, you about grammar. (Kidding). But honestly it’s been a real treat to see you blossom while responding to adversity in such an open and endearing manner.  From all of us here at PositiveLite.com, we send much  love across the miles.

A to B is a short line. But in my first year with HIV, I feel as if I went through the whole alphabet to get to where I am today. And you know what? No regrets and I wouldn't change a thing. I am the man I am today because of the people I've met since my diagnoses. Here through PositiveLite.com, twitter, family, and God.

It was the morning of the narration workshop and I was up early and excited, becauseI was going to meet new some people, face to face, that I had met through Twitter. 

I arrived at the station early. It was a hot summer morning and I decided to go to a coffee shop to avoid the heat. I could see the station entrance from where I was sitting, able to see any others waiting around for Kim, organizer the workshop.

When I could see that some people had arrived including Kim, I ran out  to where everyone was standing. Kim was just as I had imagined her to be, very warm and welcoming, and she thanked me for coming. I soon started to introduce myself to the others as Brian, and thought I should then say "Shochusucker", from twitter. I was surprised at some blank stares I was getting. I had followed all, but not everyone had followed back. Two followers knew me right away, though - one, a girl from the east coast of the states named Jenny and a guy from Canada named Remi.

We were soon off to the place where the workshop was to be, about ten minutes' walk away. I was hot and longing for air-conditioning. We all sat down on sofas and chairs arranged in a circle. I felt at any moment that someone was going to say, "Hi! My name is so and so, and I'm an alcoholic."

The leader of the group was introduced by Kim. We all introduced ourselves and shared any narration jobs we might have done. I said I had done a few jobs. 

We were then all handed some narration copy that we would read aloud. I scanned mine and was unsure how to say some of the technical words. The leader asked who wanted to go first and Jenny jumped right in. After she read we all clapped. She really did have a good sounding voice for such a job, and leader seemed impressed. The others went around one after each other and read. The leader would comment after each person while I sat there with a dumb smile on my face, enjoying every moment.

Before I knew it the leader of the group turned to me. I took a big drink of water and began - and this radio announcer-like voice came out of my mouth. It was like a 1970's game show host. I could feel my face fill with color. The last sentence came out like James Earl Jones giving a speech about baseball in Field of Dreams. My face went another shade of purple and I finished. All clapped and then the leader jumped in.

"I think that's how you might think it should sound. However it would be nice to hear it again in your own voice. Also don't inhale so loudly,  the mic picks up everything."

Everything he said was true and my ego had been deflated. The second time went much better, and I found just being myself worked well. The leader agreed.

We were asked to read something about Harry Potter, in character. I said it would be hard not to think of an English accent. Others agreed.  A guy named Graig from England and I both had similar ideas about doing an old man's voice. However it stripped our vocal chords and the two of us sat coughing and spluttering the rest of the workshop.

We were all having fun and before I realized it, it was time to go.

On the way back I walked with Remi. I had lived in Canada after college and wanted to talk to him more. He was surprised I knew his home province of New Brunswick. I told him I had lived in Langley near Vancouver and in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I also told him I could sing "O Canada". To my surprised he said he couldn't - in English, only in French. I told him I was a huge fan of The Rankin Family.

The summer went on with many hot days. I had bought a little kids pool to put on my balcony, dipping in it through the day to help cool down. I was getting rather dark-skinned. I asked my doctor if my meds would react well to sun exposure. He said yes.  My CD4 was also going up and up and he thougt the nebulizer was no longer needed.

August rolled around and I saw another tweetUp being discussed by two guys, Frank and Henry, in Ebisu.  It looked like Remi and Kim might be there too, also Simon from New Zealand, whom I always enjoyed on twitter.  I soon got the green light from Frank and Henry to come and join them.

The night of the tweetUp I was excited to meet all these people, but I also felt like I might be imposing on them.  It was a hot Tokyo night with high humidity. I found the place just fine and walked down a flight of stairs to where everyone was and introduced myself as Brian “the ShochuSucker” again.

Frank had a very nice demeanor and introduced me to all there. There were less than 10 people. Meeting Simon I got a good vibe;  he was a good soul and a true gentleman. Another guy from twitter, Matidone, had a big, fun personality and was a big talker. Meeting Henry I got the feeling that I was under scrutiny, figuring out what kind of character I might be: I ended up hanging with him. He was a very no-nonsense guy with, at times, a bit of a bark. At one point he said  how, when talking to someone, he looks them dead in the eye – and gave me the stare to make his point. I took a moment to look into his eyes and I could see this was a man with a big heart.

Remi showed up later and I was happy to meet him again.  Kim never showed. All of us had the gift of gab and the conversation was never dull. Simon was a bit more reserved than the rest of us, but when he had something to say it was honest and sincere and deserved our attention.

All of us were sharing stories and talking over each other throughout the night. However, Henry took the prize with the best story of shooting off a fire extinguisher at a bar down the street. He said the whole place had to clear out and ironically the fire department showed up too.  The visual in my head brought tears of laughter to my eyes.

Frank and I got on the subject of the March 11th earthquake, sharing our stories of where we were and our journey after that. So many had left Japan. I told him how I couldn't leave my friends. He shared about how he had put a group together, foreigners who wouldn't leave Japan. It was called "Gaijin Hero's." (Gaijin = Foreigner).  He asked if I wanted to join, and  I said, "Sure!"

Frank and I were already planning on doing another tweetUp the next month. I told him I had a place in mind called RED in Shibuya. He seemed keen on the location and told me to see if we could get it.

That night, I went to bed with a great feeling of new friendships made. I was soon off to dreamland. A Gaijin Hero. A man with new friends.

I closed my eyes and had visions of fire extinguishers dancing in my head!

I didn’t know one person who was HIV-positive before I walked down that long hallway to get the results of my recent-exposure HIV test. I didn’t know one person who was HIV-positive before I made a decision, on December 18, 2011, to have unprotected sex, based on my assumptions about someone’s character instead of my knowledge of their status. But everything changed for me on January 24, 2012. On that day, the answer I have given for my entire life - that I’m negative - changed.

Hello, PositiveLite.com readers. I’m Josh Robbins. I’m 29-years-old, I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and I just found out that I’m HIV-positive.

Growing up in a small town in western Tennessee, I had big dreams. I was very active in my non-denominational church—a leader in the youth group. I loved playing basketball and found tremendous comfort performing community theatre on a massive stage. Both socially active and educationally grounded, I felt invincible, that the world was my stage. 

Yet I knew at a relatively early age that something was a bit different for me — that I was attracted to men. But if this was the worst thing about me, I could keep it quiet from my friends and family. Actually I was quite great about leading a double-life, even when I moved to New York City a month after graduating high school. I was free, I thought.

It was in New York that I was first openly introduced to safer sex. I was in a group discussion about sex and I was asked to participate in a game where I had to name a condom. It was uncomfortable but amazing to be able to have a dialogue about something that was never really discussed earlier in my life—sex. I named my condom “Camouflage” because “nobody would see me coming.”  Of course, I realized I was a natural at comedy. Or so I thought.

But after living in the Big Apple during September 11, 2001 and its aftermath, I decided to move back home to Tennessee. It was at that time that I realized how extremely close I was to my family. My sister became my best friend.

Because of my closeness to my family, and because of my ability to allow the world to be my playground, I made the decision at age 25 to come out as gay to my family and every one of my friends. But I revealed the news in a very matter-of-fact way. I never asked for their approval, because I felt I didn’t need it. I took the power of the conversation and said to every one of them that if they couldn’t or wouldn’t still love me, then I would choose for them to not be in my life. It was sharp, I must admit. But it was how I felt.

Almost every important person to whom I came out to as gay remains close to me to this day. Little did I realize at that time that the power that I’d mustered during those conversations would again be tested when I decided to reveal my HIV status.

The words that I heard when I got my test results - “It is a positive viral load” - still remain ingrained in my memory.  It’s very ironic how six simple words could literally take the breath out of me, even though I’d prepared for the possibility of this news for over three-and-a-half weeks, while waiting for my test result. You see, I’d been very active in local HIV awareness campaigns. I’d become the poster boy (literally) for an HIV vaccine study, with my face being on club-goers’ bathroom walls, beaming awareness and activism, in a very visible campaign, educating others about safer sex.

But the message didn’t seem to affect me personally. I thought I was invincible. And now I’m infected.

I felt alone—not knowing even one person who was HIV-positive. I felt scared and I didn’t want to die. So I made a decision. I would not allow myself to go back “in the closet” because of my status.

With this determination and personal decision not to remain silent about my status, I wondered what it would be like for others to actually hear the words from the hospital staff that I was either negative or positive. So, I armed myself with my phone camera and documented the long walk from my car to the actual clinic, keeping the recording going in my pocket. This was really important to me—documenting and recording the experience that so many fear or refuse to really consider. If I heard the news that I was HIV-positive, I wanted to both educate and make real the process others have, will or, hopefully, won’t go through. [You can view Josh’s video made on the day he got his test result at the end of this article. — Ed.]

Then, two weeks after I got my HIV-positive test result, I bought the domain imstilljosh.com.  The decision to start my blog at this site was simply that I wanted a place to put the video online, as well as be in control of the message that others may or may not hear about me in my hometown. I wanted to control the release of information and lead my personal narrative. Within three hours of the purchase, I wrote a very simple blog—“I’m Josh. I’m HIV Positive. So What? I’m Still Josh. You still be YOU!” And I posted on my blog the video of me going to the clinic to get my test results.

Simple enough, right? Well… not really. I had to get the word out that I had a blog, so I made a very simple status update on my personal facebook – just the link to the blog. I guess it went well—the blog had over 1,800 views within 24 hours. I don’t even know 1.800 people, let alone have that many virtual facebook friends. Well, the cat was out of the bag—and it feels great!

My thinking is pretty simple—the world continues even though I’m HIV-positive. My cell phone bill is still due at the end of the month. And if I don’t work, I can’t pay my car loan. But, I’m changed. I’m changed not only because of my HIV status, I’m also changed because I now realize that, before I became infected, I was mistaken in not allowing the message about HIV prevention to impact me. I’m also changed because I have a love for the other gay men in my city who also believe that they’re as invincible as I once thought I was.

So the journey starts, the fight continues, and humor is how I’ll continue to make it through. When things get stressful or people start acting crazy around me, I simply say. “You’re raising my viral load!” They get shocked; I laugh.

Because I blogged openly and candidly about being HIV-positive, another positive guy here in town made a video announcing his status that I posted on my blog. And more are on the way—the emails are rolling in from other HIV-positive men in the area willing and ready to share their stories as well. It’s all quite inspiring.

I’m still Josh. You still be YOU! And check out my blog imstilljosh.com.  http://imstilljosh.com

You can also follow Josh on Twitter @imstilljosh and friend him on facebook www.facebook.com/joshuarobbins 

Images courtesy of Out & About Newspaper". www.outandaboutnewspaper.com

You can read Part 10 here. 

The Spring of 2011 was a mixed bag for me. The March earthquake still kept me a bit on edge with every aftershock. At the same time, I was getting more jaded with every one of them, to the point where it was just a part of my daily routine. Wake up, coffee, shake, breakfast, lunch, shake, dinner, TV, shake, bed, and maybe another shaker in the night.

However I was more upbeat than could be expected. I was more involved at the gym, my health and energy were way up. I also was getting into my gardening and was enjoying all the time I was getting outside.

In the first week of May,  I always hosted a home party during Golden Week. However it seemed Japan had taken a break from the Cherry blossom parties  and other celebratory events. So I thought I would follow suit and do the same.

I was getting pretty social on twitter. I had always heard of twitter, but had no real interest in it. I was surprised with the relationships I was making there, and found myself talking to these people every day. It was however a bit disheartening that some of my best peeps where in the U.K. Area and a women named Karen in Ireland. Karen, John, (@viraloadwarrior ) and me were tweeting almost daily come June. We would get so silly in our conversations that I found myself LOL to the point of tears at times. John too, confessed to having some of the strangest tweets with us. Karen was getting excited about an upcoming wedding in Italy and was happy to tweet pictures of her dress and talk about a mad hunt for shoes to go with. 

John was now talking about moving back to London for a new job, but he still seemed to be unsure.

Another friend Gaetan was tweeting pics of flowers from a trip he had taken and was leaving it up to us followers to guess what the varieties of plants he was posting were. I was all over this, thinking I was pretty smart about plants. However there was one follower of his that kept jumping in before I could tweet my answers. His name was Mike, and in his bio it mentioned gardening. So I clicked "Follow" and never regretted it.

Another couple of friendships that developed there were two gals who were always busy tweeting away with me. One was named Caroline, who was a lifeguard in London and the other was named Susanna in Germany. They would end many tweets with "Mwah! and xxxxx) This was a bit new to me, but I soon found myself tweeting it too. I thought it was a bit dorky at first, but it soon just became routine.

Susanna was talking about a trip to the UK and I found myself a bit envious. "How cool would that be to fly there and meet all these people?"

Looking at the success of these relationships, I thought. "Well maybe some of the other foreigners like me living in Japan are on twitter." So I did a search and came across a girl called @SandraJapandra. I read through some of her tweets and decided to follow. To my amazement she followed back. Up to this point all my followers had something to do with HIV - living with it, writing about it,  or working with people living with it.

So here was this girl living in Japan and she followed me knowing about my condition. I still had it in my mind that some people have harsh thoughts about someone living with HIV, and due to the heavy subject would not follow me. But anyway,  I went through the people she was following and found this treasure trove of people living in Japan and tweeting about it. From there I went on a follow frenzy. And many began to follow back! After Sandra came James, then MuseInTokyo, Jonathan, Shana, Alice, Richard N., a girl called Kimiecat , Frank, Jenny S, Sarah M. and more!

After thinking I was so savvy being a foreigner living in Japan and on twitter and soon realized I was just a drop in the bucket. It felt so nice to start to forge new friendships with people who were in my grasps.

In my June visit to the doctor I was greeted with good news. My birthday was coming and my doctor said he had a birthday present for me. He was holding my blood work. My CD4 was stable the last few tests, I didn't know what to expect? He turned the paper over and "Boom!" My CD4 had shot over the 200 mark. I was no longer living with AIDS!

I now was just a guy living with HIV. I always knew how HIV led to AIDS, but I didn't realize how it could go in the other direction too.

After the doctor I met with my counsellor. She too was really excited about my results. I shared with her how well I was taking my meds, and staying on schedule. One day I had missed my evening meds. It wasn't until the next day that I realized it. In a panic I contacted my doctor. He assured me that all was OK and that I shouldn't worry. My counsellor told me too not to worry about missing it too. She asked if I had a pill box or any way to help me to remember. I told her I mostly kept the pill boxes in my bags. It was a large pill box for every day of the week and each day had four compartments. Morning, noon, evening, and bedtime. The daily compartments could be removed individually and I had put one pill in one of the days, and had put one in each of my bags, so to make sure I had my meds with me everywhere I went.  It was so routine now to take meds, that after a couple of hours later, I really couldn't remember if I had taken them. 

After leaving the hospital I was excited to share the news with my family and some of the friends I had made on twitter. Karen, John and another guy named Andy who I was more and more in contact with, were all excited for me. I mailed John and shared the thought of writing more of my story down in blog format or something. He was totally supportive and encouraged me to do so. However it would take me another three months before I would actually get up the courage to do so.

One night while following the twitter time line, I noticed that some of the Japan followers were meeting up for a trivia night in Ebisu. This was some kind of fund raiser to do with the earthquake victims of March 11th. Some of my favorite twitter people would be there, including Sandra, the first one I followed in Japan. I tweeted an interest in going and soon Kimiecat said I should come. For some reason it took me back a few steps of the reality of meeting some of these people. I felt a bit uneasy for some reason, and soon told myself not to impose on these people's night. 

One of them posted a picture of the group and I was so happy to see such a nice group of people enjoying their evening and the hopes of meeting them went up another notch. The next day I thought to myself, if I saw another chance to meet some of these new twitter friends I would take it. One American who had been such a dear friend to me in Japan was no longer talking to me. The reason why still confuses me to this day. Other friends had moved back to their countries.  Most all my other friends were Japanese, and I thought it would be nice to have some foreign friends again. I had a new life and It was time to make some new Gaijin friends before I forgot how to speak English.

I hadn't been very social for almost a year, mostly due to health reasons and lack of energy. Then money played a part and after the earthquake I was still uneasy about being too far from home. Summer was upon us, and I was back to the best health I had seen in years. It was time to get back to work on my social life. So I had a new motto, "Get out of the house! Meet people!"

Soon after that I saw my chance. Kim (kimiecat) was planning a voice workshop for doing voice work in Japan. I soon thought to myself "You're going!" Many people who I was already following were going too. I really didn't care what it was. Even if it was a workshop about the mating habits of the crows in Ueno Park, I still would've gone. I contacted Kim and she was excited to have me join them.

 I felt like I was standing on a point, looking out onto a new life with new and wonderful people in it. For the others going it was probably like, "Ya. I got this thing coming up." For me, for some reason, it was a bit more and I was counting the days to the workshop.

I went to bed that night with all kinds of giddiness.

Part 12 Will wrap up this story of my year with HIV. I will talk about the workshop, crashing a tweetUp, then organizing a tweetUp. And the struggle of writing "Part one, My first year with HIV."