Okay, Powell's is starting to piss me off. I ordered a stack of books from them, and a stack of books from Amazon on the same day. The books from Amazon arrived days ago, and I've already got a good chunk of them read. Where the hell are my books from Powell's? They both ship from the PNW, so there's no excuse for this lame service. I ordered the books because I wanted to read them, not because I wanted to wait for them.

I'm trying to read this book Coachella but not having much luck. I should have read the back cover before I checked it out, I'm not sure I can make it through a book about AIDS. Especially a book written in 1998, but set in 1983. I don't really have the words to explain it, but it upsets me. Catherine and I talked briefly today about why we don't have any gay male friends anymore. "Because they all died?" was her first reply. But we had plenty until we moved to Indiana--now we have no gay friends, female or male. I know why we don't have any lesbian friends (because I don't play softball or listen to womyn's music!), but I'm not sure about the male part. Because we're afraid they'll die? Or did we just get sick of the misogyny? We don't do any AIDS volunteer work anymore, maybe because the urgency went away after Michael died?

I think I'm bitter, because if Michael, or John, or Robert, or Thomas or....jesus christ, all of them...had been alive just 2 or 3 years later...they'd probably still be alive today.

Damnit, Powell's, if you'd just got my trashy lesbian novels to me, I wouldn't have to be thinking about all this.

Addendum: there's an article in this morning's paper saying that the CDC is advising gay/bisexual men to get tested for HIV every year--the first time they've really said something like this. I hope Alex is paying attention.