I was standing in the line at Target. M was about to melt down, and I was thinking---'get me outta here!'
The girl in front of me (petite, mousy, wearing librarian glasses...looked like a nerdy Jewish girl I knew in High School) was buying funky nail polish colors, extreme make-up colors, and a make up trunk---by 'trunk', I mean a metal, opens to 50drawers, make-up TRUNK.
I commented on how cool her nail colors were...and how that was a 'mac-daddy make-up case'...
She said, 'yeah, I am always looking for something different...and my make-up bag ripped the other night.'
'Oh, really?' I say,'I used to do professional theatre and was always jealous of the girls with the trunks like that...'
She said,'Yeah! I know! I was always thinking what the heck? Why do the girls I work with need a trunk?...then I realized I needed a trunk for all my different looks...'
'So, are you a dancer?' I asked...
'Yes, I am'....she said.
'Wow! What kind of dance do you do?' I asked, thinking she is part of a ballet company or something---she is so tiny!
She looks down, pauses and sheepishly says, 'I am an exotic dancer...'
'Really?' I say, concealing my...ummm...amazement.
I asked her 'how did you get in to that?'...because I am obnoxiously chatty....
She said she used to work at PetCo, and she went swimming one day with a friend who was a waitress at 'The Foxxy Lady' here in Raleigh....and the girl said she should consider dancing...and she did!
'It's not 'me'...it's a persona...' she said.
(I nod in agreement...as a performer, I understand.)
'I would never ask my real life friends to come watch me, and I would never invite any of the girls I work with in to my private life...'
'Cool, I get it...' I say.
She went on to tell me she works in Raleigh, Durham, and Wilmington....
She said she likes to 'change up' her looks because when she is 'gone for a week at a time, they miss me...'
Of course, vicariously, I am seeing myself at some high class strip bar wearing a brunette wig and hot white platform hooker pumps....and I start laughing at myself---I could never do that----well, at least not after having 3 kids...but I could bartend...and be a bouncer, sort of!
Anyway, we said our good-byes, and off she went.
M and I walked out to the parking lot, and damn if she wasn't pulling out in a brand new Honda Accord...with plates that said 'Miss Prissy'...
'Exotic Dancing' apparently pays well.
Then I got to thinkin'....NAAAHHHH!
(hahahaha!)
