Last night I took home $380 for an 8 hour shift. Most of that was from one guy (Jon), who bought 3 bed dances from me. I also got some good tips - $80 of it was just in tips. That should up the average a bit.
At 46 hours I've earned $1149.
Last night I made $47.50/hour if you count tips. That means for my 46 hours of work the average so far (without expenses) is $24.98/hour. With expenses it would be ($1149 - $205 = 944) divided by 46 = $20.52/hour. Yesterday it was at $14.84/hour, so just one really good night & things are looking up.
I am on schedule for Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week. At the very least I should be able to take home $400 over those four days. At the most, who knows? The important thing about all this (besides the fact that I really fuckin need to open a bank account here) is that Ponge and I are going to be able to pay all of our Septemeber bills and won't have to borrow any money to pay for October rent. We're in the clear for another month. My stress levels are so fucking reduced for that simple fact.
At 23 years old, with a college degree & lots of work experience for someone my age, I really ought to be able to pay for my expenses. Granted, right now I'm paying for two people's expenses, but Ponge also did a better job in savings than I did. The only reason we were so potentially fucked is because he has sent probably $2000 back home since he started working. Otherwise, he would have had at least twice what I did in my savings account. The money I spent on going out for beers & wanton pleasures, he saved & sent to family in Senegal. Which, really, I have nothing to say about him sending money home as long as our basic needs are covered. And he feels the same, he won't be sending money back that we don't have to spare.
He's never ever said anything about my spending cash on drinking, although theoretically he could and be somewhat justified. It is a luxury & not a necessity. In Madison, our money was separate. He had his account and I mine, and we split bills (groceries, cell phone, dining, etc.) equally. Right now, it doesn't really matter who is spending what. We have a certain amount of money and a certain amount of expenses and everything just needs to get paid. Neither of us had jobs lined up when we moved here & I underestimated how long it would take to get jobs. He couldn't have really estimated much since he is even less knowledgable than I about this sort of thing.
So I have work right now & since our Madison accounts are all but empty (only like $400 between our savings & checkings) I pretty much am in charge of financing everything for the next month.
I do want to get some "straight" work. This gig is fucking harsh on my body & energy levels. And it kills almost entirely my social life, since my hours of work are most people's hours of sleep or play. Also I have no health insurance, which is really dangerous. Ponge and I both need it. Fuck, my entire knees are purple & blue from crawling around on stage and moving my booty. My fuckin feet don't know what the hell is going on anymore. At first they hurt while wearing the boots & at the end of the night it hurts when I take them off & move my feet straight again. And it's activating all kinds of shit with my hip, leg, & foot as far as the pain I've been dealing with there for the past 5 years or so.
It's really interesting what this is doing to my view of men. I never really had a strong image of men as a bunch of penis following dipshits, but all of the sudden I'm brought into the ugly core of sexual society (and this is only a strip joint, imagine if I were escorting). I'm laying on stage one leg wrapped around a cheesy gold pole, the other at an angle on the stage so that the boys can see my twat & their faces are so ridiculous! It's like they've never seen twat before in their lives. All the ooohhs and mmms and fascinated looks just make me want to laugh. Someone will put a dollar on and all of them will crowd round and stare with amazement at something so biological, so common, so available in so many forms. Many of the guys there have girlfriends as well, so it's not like their desparate lonely guys (although those are definitly there as well), it's just the allure of the strange woman, the available woman, the slut so fine she's on a stage. It's a big psychological fuck. Some of the women there have the stripper ideal - large breasts, round ass, little in the middle; but the majority are fairly average looking women. One of the largest women in there is one of the top five earners. Most people in normal life wouldn't think she could be a stripper.
So what is it then? Gettin your game on, really. Teasing, enticing, reading the client. Some guys are worth talking to for a little bit, some not. Some guys want a big fake show with a lot of rough dick-riding, others want something more intimate, more sensual. When I can figure out what he wants, maybe I can get a good tip or a couple of dances out of him. Maybe I can get a regular. That's the best thing in the world. I have this regular who last week was like, ok I like you & I'll spend $60 on you tonight. So I just asked him once in awhile if he was feeling ready for his next dance & we went at it. After 3 dances he was spent & I had his money. Maybe next time I should sit next to him a bit longer & talk just to make sure to secure him.
With the women it's a little different. Some of them are there because their boyfriend dragged them there & aren't really that happy when you ask them if they want a dance. Others love it & laugh & smile the whole time. I love clients like that. Some want you to teach them to dance & will pay for a dance for both them & their bf just to see how it's done. And really, it's not that fucking complicated, but I can see how in bed it could be a little wierd for a variety of reasons. Most women aren't sure if they are supposed to like it or not. They get a dance & they probably like it to some extent, but are self-identified as straight and have no clue about the immense sexual variety in the human being.
It felt/feels a little strange to be so fake. In real life I probably wouldn't have even the tiniest desire to go up to 99.9999% of the people in there & talk to them, other than in random encounters like at the bus stop or something. It feels a little like deceit. But the people know they are walking into a strip joint, they are paying to be there. They are paying for us to walk around in skimpy stripper outfits. For us to talk to them, and for us to tease them. It's the whole point of the place. So I guess for those that think there is something real happening, they need that self-deceit to be okay with what they are doing in the place. I wonder if I have a degree of self-deceit to be okay with working there?
People say it's exploitive. But really, who's exploiting whom? I'm taking advantage of hormones & the animal part of our so-called advanced society. They are taking advantage of my willingness to be a little slutty & a little friendly for money. I'm a little slutty anyway(not in a cheating sort of way) & I need to learn to be more friendly anyway. I want to pull out the angry bitch when she's needed, not just as something people perceive about me no matter what I'm thinking about. ...but back to exploitive.. Who is losing out in this situation? My relationship may suffer from the schedule. But this is a necessity right now, we have bills to pay.
I feel better about my body that I probably ever have in my life. I'm more comfortable being naked in front of people - like without a thought comfortable - than I ever have been & I have always wanted to be that comfortable. I've been making the kind of wages I probably won't make in the non-profit world until I can be an Executive Director or some such thing. My confidence is up, my stress levels down. Maybe my body hurts, but some of that is just conditioning. Like any sport, it's hard at first & then better later as your body gets more toned & flexible. It's an interesting social experience, it's something I've wanted to try for years & now I won't have regrets that I never checked it out.