(with the recent loss of 3 valued ASSC posters I felt I should post
 something, anything, to help keep ASSC alive)

  Day in the Life

  I meet 18 year old *I* at the restaurant for lunch as planned.  She
has a girlfriend along, someone she barely knows, she's crashing at
*I*'s room until she gets on her feet. The girlfriend said she was
just a day away from dancing at a strip club herself but somehow
managed to get a waitress job yesterday. "This is about survival", *I*
says.

  I say , "Oh - you know how I said on the phone that *K* has stopped
calling me ? Well right after we talked she called. Wants me to come
see her tonite at the club, she got her braces off."

  [ *K* ... the Danish girl. I had been her regular for 7 months,
including the two one month vacations she had treated herself too.
But on her last vacation I had fallen for *I* and had switched teams,
so to speak. I didn't have the guts to come out and say forthrightly
to *K*,   " I like *I* now, not you. She's going to get my money from
now on."  Instead last Saturday nite, the first time I had seen her
since she returned, I had been cruel. *K*, all smiles, came over to me
with a brand new dancer, a girlfriend liquored up and working her
first ever nite at a strip club. " This is my friend *F*. Won't you be
her first lapdance customer ? "  I say sure and spend some money on
*F*.  Actually a lot of money ...much more on *F* than on her. Later
that nite while *K* was on stage I crossed right in front of her,
smiling, on my way to buy still more dances from *F*. The rest of my
behaviour with *K* was out of the ordinary too. I didn't take her out
for dinner on her break, I didn't tip her big when she danced. When we
chatted I told her about my trip to Maui next week and she asked if
she could come along - I ignored her. When she asked where I got my
new jacket I said Bloomingdales and she asked if I would take her
there as she needed some new clothes - I ignored her. ]

 Still at lunch *I* notices the garish hickeys on my neck but says
nothing.

  [ I received them last nite from *M* at the club. *M* and I had a
grand old time - not much action but plenty of mental stimulation. I
had noticed a couple of weeks earlier that I was quite susceptible to
a beautiful women talking provocatively. In that case I had been idly
watching a dancer's stage show when suddenly the dancer at my side
started telling me the details of having fucked the dancer on stage. "
... all right in front of my boyfriend. " ]

  Lunch ends and *I* and I drive off to a warehouse clothing store.
She needs some clothes for her new waitressing job. She has dropped
some club shifts in the last few days intending to work as a dancer
just 1 or 2 shifts per week. The rest of the time she will work as a
waitress.  For one thing she wanted to please her parents who are well
aware that she is a stripper ( at first she had told them she was
working as a waitress giving the club's name as being a restaurant,
but when her mother called the "restaurant" looking for her the
bartender replied, " You're looking for who ?  Whats her stage name ?
" )

  Also *I* wanted the waitressing job in order to be able to tell the
young men she met what she did for a living. *I* told me how another
young dancer explained her odd hours to a new boyfriend by saying she
was a private eye. 

 I ask *I* who she is seeing now. She tells me about a young man,
-surprise- a musician. It doesn't bother me to hear about her love
life.  I'm not crazy - I don't really think an 18 year old is going to
leap into my 41 year old arms without there being money on a table.
(Which reminds me of the meanest thing a dancer ever said to me: " If
I was 40 I would be in love with you." )

  During the car ride she asks about my hickeys. I joke that *M* was
just trying to persuade me to take her along to Maui next week.

  [ Actually *M* enquired about Hawaii from a different angle. She
would like a week's vacation but doesn't want to be totally on her
own. If things go her way she will buy her own ticket and join me in
Hawaii.  I was skeptical so didn't offer to get her a ticket in
advance. On the other hand last nite *M* earned more from me than the
cost of a ticket to Paris, let alone Hawaii ... ]

  We arrive at the discount clothing warehouse ( her idea ). I tell
her that if I offered to take *K* here she would turn up her nose and
insist on Nordstrom's. *I* shops for practical clothes for her
waitressing job ( the first time I took *K* shopping the first thing
she did was try on a very expensive Donna Karan gown ). I push a
shopping cart around as I follow behind her. Even in ordinary street
clothes she looks sexy. I catch myself staring at her rear end. What a
sorry sight I must be! 41 year old man following an 18 year old girl
around staring at her ass. 

  The damage at the clothing store isn't bad, maybe $ 200. On the way
back to her place *I* asks why I take care of dancers. I tell her that
I have lots of nephews and nieces and am used to taking them to malls.
" I love to see their happy faces when we shop", I say. " Plus I like
being a part of your life. A tiny part of your life."  She says that I
am more than that - that I am the only decent guy she ever met at the
club and that we have gone beyond the club to become friends.  " I'm
really glad you're here to help me out now. One day I will be really
succesful and I am going to buy you some really neat clothes."

  I believe her. I know she has helped many of her fellow Deadheads -
letting them crash at her place, feeding them. " Mother *I* of San
Francisco", I kid her. " That's my way", she says. " When I am doing
well I help out who I can. I'm glad you help me out when things aren't
going well."  
 
  Our afternoon was about to end. But one card remained. A couple of
days earlier she asked if I could give her some bucks to pay her
missed stage fees ( $ 120 ). She will have to pay this amount before
she starts her next shift at the club. I had done this for her two
weeks earlier when she had missed some shifts due to illness. It was
in the back of my mind but I said nothing about it. Maybe she had
expected me to bring it up. With just a block to go to her place she
suddenly dropped the guided tour of her neighborhood and blurted out,
" I need some money before the shift Tuesday." " No problem", I smiled
as I pulled up in front of her place. I gave her the money and she
instantly brightened, relieved. She gave me a kiss and said, " I'm
going to give you extra special lapdances Tuesday."

  Hmmm ... how like a stripper. I didn't care for the sound of that -
a lot of dancers in the past year had promised me special lapdances.
I wish she had said something like - " Thanks ".   Oh well not a
perfect day. But not bad. She said she's going to mix a tape of her
favorite dance music for me tomorrow. And she wants to take a ride to
the beach soon ( I promised she could do the driving ). And while our
plans for Hawaii didn't work out maybe everything will come together
for my next trip ...
 
  Just one more ASSC day in the life.