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<title>Do It&#33; at Metro Weekly (Newspaper Magazine of Gay and Lesbian Washington, DC)</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com</link>
	<description>Weekly gay publication of Washington, DC including features on news, arts, politics, lifestlye, film, music, as well as events calendars, classifieds, home ads and free personals. </description>
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	<title>Us Helping Us Stretching: Exercise group meets weekly on Saturday mornings</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/community/doit/?ak=4534</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Do It!: Besides coffee and a shower&#44; I don&#39;t have time for anything else in the morning before jumping into the daily grind&#46; That&#39;s my excuse for not stretching every morning&#46; And while I do a quick three&#45;minute stretch at the gym&#44; I get the feeling &#45;&#45; especially when trying to touch my toes without bending my knees &#45;&#45; that I&#39;m not elongating my muscles as often as I should&#46; After all&#44; it&#39;s common knowledge that it pays to stretch&#58; You reduce your chances of injury and are able to move more smoothly&#46; That&#39;s one of the reasons I recently decided to try Us Helping Us&#39; Saturday Morning Fitness Group&#46; The group&#39;s main goal is to encourage HIV&#45;positive men &#45;&#45; though all are welcome &#45;&#45; to optimize their health through exercise&#46; We began by throwing our mats on the floor and warmed up with relaxation stretches&#44; slowly raising our hands up&#44; over our heads&#46; Then onto legs&#46; Then abs&#46; The works&#46; You know that feeling you get when you&#39;re holding a stretch till you feel it borders on torture&#63; It was a little like that &#45;&#45; and that was just the warm&#45;up&#46; We then went into &#39;&#39;isolation warm&#45;up&#39;&#39; exercises&#44; as the instructor pumped up the music and guided us through the routines&#46; I was told not to overexert&#44; but at times I wanted to for the simple reason of not embarrassing myself due to my lack of flexibility&#46; But the instructor said not to&#58; &#39;&#39;If you feel pain&#44; your body is telling you something is wrong&#46;&#39;&#39; That&#39;s the good thing about having an instructor&#46; And when it&#39;s a small group like the one at Us Helping Us&#44; you&#39;re treated to one&#45;on&#45;one attention&#44; which comes in handy when you can&#39;t figure out how you&#39;re supposed to move the bottom of your torso&#44; but not the top&#46; Someone is there to guide you&#46; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>The Ushers: GLBT theater enthusiasts have been attending plays for the past two decades</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/community/doit/?ak=4497</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Do It!: To see or not to see&#63; That is the question you may ask yourself if you want to see a play and can&#39;t persuade friends to tag along&#46; If you&#39;re like me&#44; you probably wouldn&#39;t like going to the show alone&#46; The good news is&#44; if you live locally&#44; you don&#39;t ever have to&#46; The Ushers&#44; a group for GLBT theater enthusiasts&#44; have been attending plays in the area and in New York City for the past two decades &#45;&#45; long before I made my own stage debut as a hunchback in my eighth&#45;grade class&#39; production of You Ain&#39;t Nothing But a Werewolf&#46;There were no hunchbacks or werewolves in sight on the recent Sunday when I joined the Ushers at Rep Stage in Columbia&#44; Md&#46;&#44; to kick off the group&#39;s 20th season with Wittenberg&#46; In fact&#44; it felt somewhat appropriate to start the season with a show that&#39;s connected to the most famous name in the theater world&#58; Shakespeare&#46; Obviously&#44; Shakespeare didn&#39;t write this relatively new production about Prince Hamlet&#39;s life in Wittenberg&#44; Germany&#44; before he became king&#46; The show focuses on Hamlet&#39;s struggle with religion and reason with a modern&#44; comic twist&#46; So it&#39;s definitely one of those shows that&#39;s more enjoyable to watch with other people&#46;The Ushers usually buy group tickets to sit together&#44; but for this production&#44; we each bought our tickets individually&#46; Luckily I still ended up seated next to a member of the Ushers&#44; and it was nice to be able to turn to the person next to me and laugh&#44; or look for a reaction when a funny line was delivered&#46; And there were lots of them&#46; Sitting next to a gay theater enthusiast took the experience to the next level&#46; Take&#44; for example&#44; a scene in which a young Hamlet is about to take on a tennis match and is stretching his backside&#46; &#39;&#39;Could you please turn this way&#63;&#39;&#39; one member whispered with a chuckle&#46; And watching the show together is not the only thing the Ushers do as a group&#46; Typically&#44; there is a social dinner following productions&#46; And for shows like Wittenberg&#44; that are outside the District &#45;&#45; more than 30 miles north of Washington in this instance &#45;&#45; the group organizes carpools&#46; For more information&#44; visit www&#46;ushers&#46;us&#46; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>HIV test at Whitman&#45;Walker Clinic: DC clinic makes it easy to check your status</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/community/doit/?ak=4462</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Do It!: Having recently come out of a long&#45;term&#44; mostly sexless relationship &#45;&#45; my first&#44; actually &#45;&#45; HIV tests have been somewhat of an enigma to me&#46; They sort of just existed in the background&#46; I&#39;ve been tested&#44; but always as part of a routine visit with my doctor&#46; I&#39;d never gone out and gotten an HIV test for the sake of the test alone&#46; But since I&#39;ve found myself reunited with the land of the sexually active&#44; I&#39;ve sort of had a nagging feeling that it&#39;s my responsibility to establish a regular HIV&#45;testing pattern for myself&#46; Thank goodness for Whitman&#45;Walker Clinic&#44; because they couldn&#39;t have made it any easier&#46; Since I hate having my blood drawn&#44; I was pretty relieved when a friend told me that WWC offers oral&#45;swab tests&#46; Because of that&#44; I did not have any anxiety about stopping by the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center on a recent Thursday for a free test&#46; But after a couple questions to the receptionist&#44; I learned that the clinic has switched to a finger&#45;prick blood test for more accurate results&#46; I sat down with my two&#45;page questionnaire&#44; but all I could think about was whether or not the test would hurt&#46; At least the questions provided some distraction&#46; &#39;&#39;How many sexual partners have you had in the past 12 months&#63;&#39;&#39; &#39;&#39;Do you practice safe sex when performing oral sex&#63;&#34; The blue folder holding my questionnaire must have flagged me as a test&#45;taker&#44; and a clinical worker motioned for me to follow him into a little room where I went off about how much I hate blood work as he prepped my finger&#46; And just like that&#44; it was over&#46; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club: Rugby with D&#46;C&#46;&#39;s all&#45;inclusive team</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/community/doit/?ak=4438</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Do It!: Rugby is a tough sport&#44; no doubt about it&#44; leaving little room for wimps like me&#46; Joining the Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club at Stead Park for one of the team&#39;s first practice sessions of the fall season&#44; the only bit of good luck was that this was a touch rugby practice &#45;&#45; no tackling&#46; But it was still scary&#46; &#38;ldquo&#59;Do you have your mouth guard&#63;&#38;rdquo&#59; the coach asked&#46; &#38;ldquo&#59;You&#38;rsquo&#59;re going to need one to prevent a concussion&#44;&#38;rdquo&#59; he said as he demonstrated how a blow to the jaw could cause a serious head injury&#46; I didn&#38;rsquo&#59;t have a mouth guard&#46; And as the smallest player of the 30 or so men there&#44; I stewed in my fear&#46; Once other players arrived&#44; I started to feel a little better &#45;&#45; particularly when the manly men sharing my bench in the dugout started stripping&#44; changing from their everyday clothes to gym shorts and rugby gear&#46; That was brief relief&#44; though&#46; In a matter of seconds I was back at square one&#44; unable to shake the fear that I would soon suffer a paralyzing injury&#46; Adding to my anxiety&#44; I couldn&#38;rsquo&#59;t figure out who was gay&#44; who was straight&#44; and who &#40;I assumed&#41; would be more sympathetic to my lack of skill&#46; That&#38;rsquo&#59;s when I realized I was thinking too much&#46; These men weren&#38;rsquo&#59;t brought together by their orientation&#46; They don&#38;rsquo&#59;t care who&#38;rsquo&#59;s gay or straight&#46; They were united for one reason only&#58; rugby&#46; With that in mind&#44; I forced myself to focus on the game and not the people there&#46; It&#38;rsquo&#59;s sort of like American football&#44; with some tweaks&#46; For example&#44; you can throw the ball only to teammates behind you&#44; never forward&#46; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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	<title>Adventuring: Bike riding with Washington&#44; DC&#39;s outdoor activity group</title>
	<link>http://www.metroweekly.com/community/doit/?ak=4417</link>
	<description><![CDATA[
Do It!: I&#38;rsquo&#59;m guessing in war there&#38;rsquo&#59;s no room for screwing up&#46; Even if your equipment is faulty&#44; you have to make it work&#46; You also have to know when to surrender&#46; Joining Adventuring for a 17&#45;mile bicycle ride on a humid Monday night in Clarendon was sort of like that&#46; I simply didn&#38;rsquo&#59;t prepare for the outing&#46; I didn&#38;rsquo&#59;t buy a helmet&#46; I used a rusty bike&#46; And I forgot to bring cash for the &#36;2 trip fee &#45;&#45; a big no&#45;no&#46; Once I got past the embarrassment of my old bike&#44; four riders and I got moving from Clarendon to downtown D&#46;C&#46;&#44; and it was rough from the get&#45;go&#46; Riding down the Arlington streets and bike paths to D&#46;C&#46;&#44; it became much more about survival and less about an athletic bike ride&#46; Suddenly the monuments we visited&#44; such as the National World War II Memorial&#44; were becoming more and more appropriate &#45;&#45; I felt like I was in a combat zone&#46; A single car&#38;rsquo&#59;s door popping open could send me flying&#46; At times I was peddling&#44; but I was not moving as fast as everyone else&#46; My bike was switching gears on its own&#44; clickity&#45;clacking and making obnoxious noises from one memorial to another&#46; If there was a competition for bikes that make animal noises&#44; mine would win for something akin to whale song&#46; Yet strangely enough&#44; once we made it past the highway&#44; riding with Adventuring became pleasant enough to help me forget about my technical difficulties&#46; We stopped at the Washington Monument and other D&#46;C&#46; mainstays&#44; because on this particular trip an out&#45;of&#45;towner had joined us&#46; The highlights for me were the Lincoln Memorial&#44; the Capitol and the echo chamber at the Canadian Embassy&#46; I was dreading the inevitably difficult ride on my piece of junk back to Clarendon when one rider said&#44; &#38;ldquo&#59;We&#38;rsquo&#59;re going to suggest you take the Metro back&#46;&#38;rdquo&#59; I knew the war was lost and I sheepishly surrendered to public transportation as the rest of the group peddled away&#46; Adventuring&#38;rsquo&#59;s next weekly bike ride is scheduled for Monday&#44; Aug&#46; 3&#46; For more&#44; visit www&#46;adventuring&#46;org&#46; ... (more)]]></description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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