For some of these girls getting naked on stage in front of men is the most coherent thing in their lives.

I talk with young dancers sometimes. Well, young, but still twenty-one or older, since they are in the bar. And if their ID isn't fake. Most likely it isn't: the bartender takes great care with that. Especially good with Florida driver licenses; for whatever reason, a lot of girls In Seattle have Florida licenses but don't seem to have ever been in Florida.

Talking to strippers can be entertaining. It can also be profoundly boring: for some of these girls getting naked on stage in front of men is the most coherent thing in their lives.

Some, though: they have incisive thoughts, said with sly humor. They know how to tell a funny story. They also know the power they have, and can exercise it by simultaneously relaxing it. Nice trick.

One of the strippers is getting her real estate license on the side. Why not? She already has experience selling real estate, of a kind. I made that joke to her and she laughed, but it was pretty much a situational laugh, not a that's-funny laugh. Sometimes funny doesn't really need to be that funny, really.

None of the strippers want to still be stripping when they get older; for some though,  the definition of 'older' moves out as the years go by. But this girl: she has an actual plan. I think she'll be good at it: she's a people person.


-jj

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