Elizabeth Street, May 2007

I walked, and walked, and walked. I have never walked so much in my life.

The occasion was partly the AIDS Walk, as I mentioned, a 10-K walk that began yesterday morning in Central Park and took us through the Upper West Side and along the Hudson River. It turned out to be a beautiful day, after an initial bout of cloudiness, and the walkers were a powerful river of people surging all along the route. It's always kind of inspiring to see so many people turn out for a cause.

This is the fifth year I've done the walk. The $1,250 I raised is a personal record for me, due largely to a couple of generous coworkers who gave hefty donations. I captained the team from the company where I work, which raised in excess of $4,000. The money goes to Gay Men's Health Crisis (which despite its name serves more than gay men) and other HIV and AIDS service groups in and around New York.

Then, after the AIDS Walk, I just wasn't quite ready to go home. So I went to a diner on Madison Avenue for lunch and then kept walking. I decided to go uptown to East Harlem, a neighborhood I'd never explored much. Funny how I've lived here for seven years yet I'd never been above 96th Street on the East Side.

I went up Madison Avenue and back to the west again, as far as Lenox Avenue in Harlem and as far north as 116th Street, and then east to Lexington. To make a long story short, I walked a heck of a lot, beneath an incredible blue sky. Took lots of photos. Explored new places. And when I came home at 4:30 p.m., I had a relaxing evening with the paper and went to bed early, thereby managing to get a solid eight hours of sleep.

This morning, I feel great!