Welcome to Chaos !!

On May Day or International Workers' Day me and the rest of the girls at the club I work at went on strike. How fitting. May 1 is a day that people all over the world (?), well Europe at least like to go outside and voice their opinions for better work terms. I recall May 1st demonstrations growing up in Sweden.
The owner of the club I am at decided to change some terms in our contract and we are not OK with the terms. I am really not willing to say much more than that. What I can say is this, more than half of the girls are ready to fold and agree to the owner's terms, not even a full day into the strike. One of us is fiercly opposing the terms. I am leaning towards that as well. And two other girls are not having much to say at all. Just radio silence.....
Disappointing is how I would describe the situation. I am at risk of getting fired of course. A dancer that speaks up is labeled difficult and dancers are disposable. We are also dealing with an owner that is not playing with a full deck of cards.
I suspect not much is going to change. Accept the situation I guess.
I wish Riverside Corral was still open, what a nice and relaxing club that was. I was actually looking forward to going in to work there. It was so easy.
The owner Mike cared about us girls, the bartenders did as well, the stage was great with good lights, the dressing room was comfortable with chairs that you could relax in. Low and reasonable house fee. A five hour shift which is perfect.
We mostly had FUN. Were there issues? Yes there were issues but at least all the boxes checked for a comfortable place to work at.
No place is perfect. The club I am at now has one good thing going for it which is super important to me, no touching allowed. I strongly prefer no touching strictly enforced. We shall see how this situation unfolds......we have even loosely talked about getting unionized. So far to my knowledge there are ONLY two out of thousands of strip clubs in the US that are unionized. Star Garden in Los Angeles and Magic Tavern in Portland. Lusty Lady in San Francisco was the first club to unionize but they are no longer open. Much respect to the dancers that went through months and months of unionizing.
I have no idea how that works and I do not have a lot of knowledge of what that means for the dancers in reality, if anything.
I hope it was beneficial for them to unionize. I just know that they fought for a long time. I do not think that I have that time on my side because I will most likely quit at some point in the not too distant future. Not too distant does not mean next week or next month though!
One of the dancers at the club I am at just quit, a few of the resons were that if she did not quit the club she was going to start hating men. And that she could not take the noise level in the place. I totally hear her. It is definitely a gathering hole for loud troglodytes of all ages. Far from an elegant gentlemen's club. But touching is strictly not allowed. So I am here, for a little longer.

Meanwhile one of the dancers has an Instagram, she posted about the strike on there and a kind and generous human asked if there is a solidarity fund to donate to for us to split while we strike. Like......how nice, thoughtful and generous!
And speaking of funds. There is something I should had done a long time ago, gotten on some sort of platform in order to get paid for blogging. Instead I have been writing here for free because I love writing, for many many years now.
Anyways.....I will keep ya'll updated on our strike. Again, I do not think much will happen in our favor. It is an it is what it is situation. 
Tati's strike fund 😉 Venmo Tati-J-1

 

I got some face and body stuff. Let's go over the products from left to right.
Eyebrow shaping gel by Grande Cosmetics. I don't fill in my brows with a pen or had any microblading done. This gel works good.
Face wash by IT Cosmetics, I have been using this face wash for a while now. Works good too.
COSRX snail essence. I bought this a while back, seems like the formula changed. I recall it as being thicker, now it feels runny and smells like alcohol. Not sure if it is me imagining this or if the company changed the formula.
This happens a lot, that companies change a formula that worked great and usually it is not a change for the better.
Brazilian Bum Bum Cream - I like! Smells yummy.
Some glitter that I found at World Market.
Diorshow mascara by DIOR.  
And on my try next/want list is a face wash by Elemis. I want the original pro collagen cleansing balm.

Ok.....I have a new food obsession. Sumo mandarin or sumo citrus or dekopon in Japan. Originating in Japan (of course, like everything that is amazing) the fruit even has it's own day - March 1 is Dekopon Day in Japan. I have seen these strange looking things that resemble oranges in the produce section but never tried one until a couple of weeks ago. During a Trader Joe's visit I got offered a slice as a sample. I immediately purchased a bag.
SO YUMMY! A pair of dekopon a day keeps the doctor away.

I went to Bend and back twice in the span of a week. Long drive. That was exhausting. My mechanic lives in Bend and I dropped my car off with him, my car needed some time at the shop. Just to add more excitement to my life, my car decided to not shift from park to drive yesterday. After work of course. Lucky me the real life Goonies were there to help me.
They had tools, headlamps and even the promise to steal a car if needed to come and rescue me should I get stranded somwhere. True gentlemen! 
So now I drive around with no center console and a stripped bare gear shifter until further notice. I had to get to the release button in order to shift gears (automatic). And in order to get to that button I had to have the whole center console removed. Car issues give me major anxiety.
Of course I stopped at Backporch Coffee in Bend for a latte.

I rarely get lottery tickets but not too long ago there was a billion dollars plus at stake here in Oregon. So I thought......with a billion dollars I can do a lot of good things for animals and others. I splurged on all these lottery tickets and one was given to me as well. I still haven't checked them for any winnings (lazy) but I know that the person that scored the billion plus bought the ticket in Portland. And I did not. So no billion dollars for me at this point. I just have to keep on shuffling around in the old rhinestone heels dreaming of a billion dollars......

I do get appreciated......like this for example. Awwwwwww.......!

Today's beauty. I pulled over on the side of the road, stepped out of the car to admire this view.

The pretty light pink cherry blossoms are here.

And darker pink. The cherry blossom trees might be the prettiest trees I have ever seen. The flowers are so soft and fluffy. Besides being perfectly pink. 

So much beauty all around.

I have been absent from the blog because I have been occupied with life and being overwhelmed with it, well with my overwhelming chaotic life that is. This evening was the first time in almost a month that I paused and took a breath.
So let's see what's been going on lately......
I have been spending time on the Oregon Coast. About a two hour drive from Portland lays Astoria (the oldest city in Oregon). A lot of Scandinavians settled here a long time ago and you can find many things related to the old countries in Astoria. There is even a little park called Nordic Heritage Park.

I got burned by steam on the inside of my wrist. I found this Curad stuff to put on the burn, leftover stuff from when I injured my hand over a year ago. A year ago......! It feels like no more than three months ago, time goes so fast, too fast!

I got laundry sheets, or are they called eco-strips? I have not tried them yet. I am thinking a lot about how I can improve myself as a human. And one of the ways is to be more aware and mindful of the products that I use and discard of.
The plastic laundry detergent jugs are bad, I am trying to use and consume less bad and more "good".

And speaking of laundry. I hang dry most of my laundry, this drying rack from IKEA is great.

I saw a perfect sand dollar on a tree.

Since around Christmas time I have been eating pierogis on a regular basis. I found a brand of pierogis called Jaju -I like! The company is owned by two sisters. www.jajupierogi.com
Finding good pierogis is not easy, unless you live in Chicago or somewhere around NYC. I would go to the Polish Deli in Vegas for my pierogis and they sold pierogis that shipped in from Chicago. Since I left Vegas the hunt for good pierogis has been on and the Jaju pierogis are good.

I like my pierogis with chopped and fried red onion and sour cream. YUM!

This is my new beverage of choice. Grim Leafer by Liquid Death. A funny name but I like the companies concept. Also all their beverages come in aluminum cans. Which is GOOD. Most aluminum beverage containers are manufactured back into aluminum cans. I am trying to eliminate plastic bottles from my consumption.

I added an app on my phone called YUKA. And I don't really do apps. When people say I need an app to do something I rather not do it, like I do not want to have a bunch of apps on my phone - so irritating.
But this one can stay for a while. You scan the barcode (if available) of whatever you are going to eat and drink to see the score of the food or drink. The closer to 100 the better. As you can see this iced tea is "good".

Another thing I have been eating daily for a while are mandarins. They are addicting. I eat like six a day.

There is a place that does two for one tacos on Tuesdays. Tacos? Yes please. Four for me. With jackfruit. And limes.

And one more thing......flip flop weather has arrived! Yeay!

But now it is time for me to sleep......my eyes keep on closing.
 

Breaking news! A dancer (stripper) is running for Portland mayor. I know what you are thinking......is Tati running for mayor?
I guess another dancer beat me to it. A dancer I have actually mentioned in the blog......her name is Liv but her dancer name is Viva Las Vegas.
A couple of years ago (two years ago actually) I went to Hollywood Theatre to watch a documentary about Liv called Thank You For Supporting The Arts. You can read about it here.
https:://fargosisters.com/styx/archives/3392-Thank-You-For-Supporting-The-Arts.html
So now Liv is running for mayor and I am intrigued. I think it is great - the REVOLUTION has arrived! Liv is thinking to put together a team of knowledgeable people to help her run the city. And yes.....Portland is a great city! Yes there are problems but problems have to be dealt with and problems can be resolved.
So it dawned on me.....Liv should put me on one of the teams. After all, I have been volunteering downtown Portland for years now. I am totally comfortable in random situations, I strongly believe in helping others, I advocate for animals, I pick other people's trash every day, I believe in transparency connected to leadership and money and I can talk to anybody (it's a dancer thing). So......there must be a spot for me somewhere on a team when, or if Liv becomes the mayor of Portland.
Let's make Portland more magical together! Read an interview with Liv in the Willamette Week here.
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2024/02/27/liv-osthus-stage-name-viva-las-vegas-is-running-for-portland-mayor/