Today Tuesday......another beautiful day. It has been so nice outside, I know that the wind and rain will be here soon.
The summer, this summer went by so fast and it was mostly chaotic and sad for me. My life is calmer since a while but I still feel the sadness. My life now is before my friend passed away and after my friend passed away. I am not the same since that happened.
I joined another grief support group, this one is local and will meet once a week for the next eight weeks. Small group.
Mostly women, one man. Two fascilitators, male and female. We got books, so we will get homework. I can say this.....I have talked about my sadness. A lot. But some of the people in the grief support groups (I attend another one as well since a few months now), they say that they don't have anybody to talk to about how they feel and that going to a group and being able to talk really helps. If you feel sad and do not have anyone to talk to, find a group. And talk. Cry. I cry A LOT. During the groups, in front of people that I just met.
On yesterday's evening walk with Kaya. It is very pretty in Astoria.
Last week I went to Portland for a couple of days. A visit to IKEA, had to eat there. Plant balls for me. The cake was awful, did not finish it. I bought a pillow, been looking for a pillow and I think I found a good one. It is called 'Skogsfräken' and it is thin so my neck is more comfortably aligned when I sleep.
A beautiful pot of plants. The colors are amazing.
And this pretty flower with an amazing color. Nature is so beautiful.
I drive by this cute dragon mural often. Do you know your Chinese zodiak sign? We are now in the year of the snake.
My plans for the rest of the week......back to Portland tomorrow for errands, meeting up with friends and grief support group. Community service (work) Friday and Saturday. Laundry on Sunday. Maybe a blog entry on Sunday as well.
Until then, be safe out there.
Week 34 was rough......for the first time since 2013, with the exception of 2020 when I went to Baker Beach in San Francisco, I did not go to Burning Man. Instead I suffered at work. I decided that it was better to work than to sit at home alone and torture myself with thoughts of Burning Man. This year there was a live camera rigged up at Black Rock City, so that helped.
I could watch at least, better than nothing.
Ok now back to the wooden box (the club), I got told that a man that was misbehaving one night that I was not there. He got sprayed in the face with rubbing alcohol by one of the dancers. She told me that she thought I would be proud of her doing that. Yes girl! He was told several times to stop his behavior but would not listen. So finally he was stopped by a spritz of rubbing alcohol.
I spent some time Saturday watching the Man Burn.
One older guy sat at my stage and told me that I was either a fantasy or a hallucination but it did not matter cause both worked for him. How cute! Then three bikers en route all the way to Chile (!!!) spent some time in the club, one of them said that I reminded him of a Frank Frazetta girl. I had to look that up.....the art of Frank Frazetta, interesting.
Ok so week 35. We got a new girl, never danced before. She is super excited to dance and is very impressed that we have all been so nice to her. Yes, we are actually super nice and helpful. She is also feeling empowered, whatever that means to her but yea good for her. We have another new girl too since a few weeks, I forgot to mention that. Her name is Hex and I like her. She is very pretty and I like her style. She walks around with a bone in her hair and a 'I don't give a fuck' attitude instead of being overly pleasing and accomodating to the customers.
Friday, a youger nice looking guy decided that he really wanted to marry me. He fell for my funny Borat accent (that I do on purpose once in a while) and my even funnier jokes, yea I got those too when my mood is right. Like he was actually pleading with me to consider marriage. I was like ok ok......calm down. We don't even know each other. I was perfect for him he thought. He was actually not bad, tall and strong, well dressed, smelled good, clean and generous. But still, we do not know each other and in reality he is too young and it just would not work in the real world. To get to know each other I mean, marriage is not happening. And the club is not the real world. It is but it isn't.The real world is full of responsibilities and stress, the strip club is about forgetting about the real world for a moment.
Saturday we had a small issue with a guy that was being rude. He decided we were all ugly and crazy. I was not only ugly, I was OLD and ugly and have no teeth. ? Last time I checked, all my teeth were still attached to my gums. When angry men have no insults to throw at you, then you are always ugly. Old too if you are over 40. So I was not suprised that he said what he said. He announced that he was going to take his money and leave. Yes I said, do that the door is over there. In fact, get the fuck out. Only one of us was pretty he told us on his way out. Of course......the one dancer that is 4'9" without heels and looks like she is about 15. She is tiny and looks like a young girl, I am serious when I say she looks like 15 (she LOOKS 15 but she is older than that of course). Yes she is super cute, fun and also appears the least threatening to men out of all of us.
Plus you know, she checks that box about enigmas that never age, if you know what I mean. (Or is is gamine?) I told angry man that he was white trash while he was leaving. He acted like he was going to come back and start something so I told him to bring it bitch and took my heels off just in case but his friend dragged him out. Please never come back. I don't care that you think I am old, ugly, toothless. And that you have $100 on a good day. Do not act like an idiot or you and your dollar bills will be leaving. White trash was a compliment by the way. I feel sorry for the woman (if he has one) that has to suffer with that on top of her during seksi time. As the night unfolded we got some fun people in and I ended my night laughing a lot.
This was Saturday's word of the day, that is in Polish. Look it up if you want to find out the meaning. Practice saying it with force, it is empowering. I feel empowered in the club when I get to yell at people and tell them what they are (if needed).....like white trash for example.
Here we go......another broken flip flop. I keep the whole ones with my Burning Man stuff. So this whole one is going into a bag with all the other whole ones from a broken pair, to be worn at Burning Man.
It's been kind of hot. In Europe too. All over the world I guess unless you live somewhere cold like Svalbard. There is no need for AC in Astoria but I think that in Portland AC is needed, since the last few summers have been rather hot, unless you live in a house or apartment with great ventilation or shade then you can do without AC. One year I had to escape the heat in Portland and go camping in Mount Hood. Even several fans in my apartment did not help. Senna and Kaya were too hot so the solution was to go camping. It doesn't stay super hot for too long so it is manageable.
In Vegas I would dread the summers, several months of feeling like you were living in a hot oven.
The blackberries are everywhere right now. Today I discovered a new place (for me) to walk Kaya. I am super happy over that.
When people ask me what I do for fun.......? Spend time with my dog basically. I read a lot. And spend time with my dog.
My "fun" times are gone. In the past. I have been thinking about that the last few days. I spend most my days alone with Kaya. I rarely hang out with other people. And I go to Burning Man. There you have it.
When I lived in Vegas I had more of a social life. I would do things almost daily with a friend. Go to raves. Do stuff. After I moved to Portland and Astoria I rarely spend time with other people. It is what it is.
They have espresso ice cubes at Driftwood Coffee (in Portland), one of the places I go. I like that. I think this is something more coffee places should do.
This bottle cap came off a bottle of tea, I saved it. I have a few saved ones with different text that resonated with me, I keep them in a cupholder in my car.
I will continue telling my stories for a bit longer. I have so much more to tell, so many feelings, opinions, memories. All of us do. Mine are not better or more special than yours. The last year has been extremely stressful for me with a lot of sadness. Deep sadness. And the last couple of years I was living under a lot of almost daily stress and dealt with some stressfull situations. It affected me. I am no longer in a certain situation since about a month. So I can step away from that. I still carry a heavy load of sadness and that sadness I will carry for the rest of my life. So yea, I am sad a lot. And throughout the day I either think of, or read, or see something that is sad so then that makes me more sad. The state of the world, an animal suffering, anything like that and I get sad. Sad and stressful.......I don't even want to count how many times I wrote those words in this entry. But those words describe what I have been through lately.
After a shift is over most of us wipe down our butt cheeks with rubbing alcohol. We have this bottle on a little table on the stage. I spray it on baby wipes and rub my butt cheeks down. I call it cleaning off the troglodyte dirt.
Last night towards the end of our shift the girls said they wanted to get out of "this hellhole"......they sounded just like me.
I am very vocal about the emotional suffering at work and I am probably the one putting in the least effort trying to be "entertaining".
I started calling it community service. Going to work at this club is like doing court appointed community service, for real.
And I know that most of the girls that I work with agree with me. Yes yes it has its fun moments, yes there are nice people that come in too. BUT in between that it can be pretty awful. Girls from other clubs will come and try it for a week or a couple of shifts and not come back.
I have not worked a lot the last three weeks. But I guess one of the weeks the manager asked three different individuals/groups to leave. Due to poor behavior. And let me tell you, there are not many things more pathetic than "men" complaining in a strip club. IF THERE IS A GOOD REASON to complain, then yes I will support it. Examples of some good reasons?
You get ripped off somehow. I am no ok with that. Bamboozled. I am not ok with that. Subjected to some sort of violence for no reason. (Unless you consent to it). I am not ok with that. But dudes complaining for some lame reason.......shut up, get out. Yes take your dollar bills with you. BYE. There has been so many examples of poor behavior ranging from insults, stupid comments, acting excessively loud and obnoxious, complaining about the dancers for no valid reason at all.
I always ask if they need help filling out a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Like......"Tati, dancer was rude to me and told me to shut the fuck up after I said XYZ and/or acted like a loud obnoxius troglodyte." "Tati, dancer would not take her outfit off on the stage, even after I put money down for her." "Tati, dancer did not look happy, even after I demanded that she should smile." "Tati, dancer said she was "OK" after being asked how she was doing, "OK" is not acceptable, it should always be "GREAT!" "Dancer refused to give me her phone number although I pestered her for it several times."
"Dancer does not want to meet me/group of men after she gets off work." BARF. This is not the girlfriend shop or a dating app. We do not want a boyfriend and no we do not want to go hang out in the middle of the night with you and your friends, even though your room supposedly has a (dirty) jacuzzi. Like......a jacuzzi? OMG I am RUSHING out of the club just so I can try it out, never dipped my foot into one before....!
I mean, back in the day when me and my friend Shelley danced in Vegas we would frequently dine at one of the best restaurants at the Bellagio. One of the top chefs in Vegas had a crush on Shelley and told us that whenever we were hungry we were welcome to come have a meal, on him. No expectations. IF you left the club to go meet up with somebody it would be to go gamble somewhere, in PUBLIC. And not with my own money. Fine dining and a nice conversation - check. If you can offer that, then maybe. And NO expectations, of course.
Sitting in a jacuzzi at 2 in the morning, clenching a Pabst and getting burped on by some horny guy who is hoping for some sex just does not seem appealing at all. No thanks. I rather be home sleeping.
Last week Friday a group of sour looking standoffish men decided to come in. Sat in a group at a table, stared at us, talked about us. We did not approach them. One of them came up to me and asked for a dance. Towards the end of the dance I hear some yelling outside of the dance area. One of his buddies thought it would be fun to go sit on the stage with his fun Meta glasses on and record one of the dancers. So she ripped the glasses off his face and broke them in half. Yea, that is what you get when you play stupid games......you win stupid prices. They left. She called the police. Her and I talked to a very nice officer outside the club about the incident. He was on our side, of course.
I stopped taking anything off on stage at this particular club well over a year ago. Not worth it. Too many people staring for free from the bar area. People trying to record or take pictures. I do not care about the money lost. In fact we are talking about all of us not taking anything off on the stage and saving that part for the lap dances. I would like that but I know that most likely it won't happen because some of the girls are more concerned with pleasing the guys. Not me. I think we should all wear burqas on stage.
I walk around and sit around wrapped in a black long piece of fabric most of the time. Or this sheer robe. It depends on what outfit I am wearing. Or if I am cold.
The club is unfortunately as far from a gentleman's club as you can get. One of the worst. Bad behavior is tolerated and it takes a lot to get kicked out. These behaviors would not be acceptable in most other clubs. I personally have very low tolerance for it all.
No recollection of anything in particular these three weeks at the club. I did not work four of my usual shifts due to being away. Besides that, as soon as I walk though the front door I start wanting to go home. And several of us feel the same way.
The only thing nice about this club is the girls. The clientele is below basic. Not all of them but many, too many. And that fact makes the shifts painful. Because that is what you have to deal with until you get to go home.
And we PAY to be at the club. And quite a lot. And way too much for what we get in return. But whatever.