A lot of you probably already heard, but I am currently on a 3 week hiatus from work to heal from surgery. If you haven’t heard the story, or if you are just the type that loves pictures & details, keep reading. I’m trying to start using more photos to keep things interesting & break up my long paragraphs.

My close friend Nikki Sexton was in town visiting with a friend of her’s in Telluride, CO, & since it was the week of her birthday I drove down six hours to hang out with them for the week. The first few days were fine. Nikki got to see her first live chipmunk & her first live deer… the ones in the photo below. Oh, & that big white building in the background is the hotel I checked into, its called The Peaks.

Saturday night we took the gondola up to eat dinner at Allred’s restaurant & enjoyed a great meal, as well as some fun after. We also enjoyed a few glasses of cotton candy moscato. Who knew such a thing existed? It was sweet though so a second glass was in order! Afterwards Nikki’s friend went home & we roamed around the city. Nikki had been experiencing altitude sickness, so we hit the Bubble Lounge & O2 Bar (local oxygen bar).

The Mushroom Festival was going on so we had a good time & met some fun people. Unfortunately I still need to get 2257 info from Nikki so I can blog photos of us together. In the meantime this generic photo will have to do. If you are dying to see a photo of us together though I do have one from a post on Twitter.

After dancing the night away we left the lounge. I fell asleep at 11 p.m., & woke up violently sick at 1 a.m.. I was so sick the bed was shaking. I’d asked the chef to put some of the mushrooms they were featuring into my dinner, so at first I thought maybe I’d ended up with poisonous mushrooms. I finally fell back asleep at 4 a.m..

When I woke up Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. I still felt extreme pain in the right side of my abdomen. I suspected  then that it was the appendix, & therefore didn’t take any pain-killers because I know that can make things worse. I went ahead & had breakfast with Nikki & her friend. When the pain had not lessened I ended up going to the emergency room, & told the front desk person I suspected it was my appendix. They ran me through a series of quick tests including a CAT scan, then loaded me onto an ambulance. Leave it to me to have something like this happen in a tiny mountain town 6 hours away from home where there are no surgeons! The ambulance transported me 1.5 hrs away to Montrose where I was rushed into surgery.

I’m slowly recovering. The first day was really the worse, I couldn’t laugh or cough without wanting to cry from the pain. Now I can at least laugh… although anything more than a giggle or two still hurts. The doctor gave me two prescriptions, one related to a medication that all of my siblings are allergic to, so I had never had before. I actually think I am allergic to it, I’ve been getting a rash & just generally itchy all over. That could be seasonal allergies, but I don’t usually get any sort of rash or itching in the throat/ear area from seasonal allergies… so I’m pretty sure it’s the medication. I’m going to keep taking it for now though unless it gets to the point that I just can’t handle it. I do have 3 incisions from the surgery, which I’m praying won’t scar!

For comparison see the before photo of Nikki & I (NSFW).
I’m on the left.

I did ask my ex (cosmetic plastic surgeon) about the scaring, & apparently I’m okay to start using the silicone sheets, so I just began using those today. I’ve been paranoid since the last surgery I had a few years ago made me go from having a perfectly round belly button to something that resembled the triangle nose of a Halloween pumpkin!

The good part about all of this is that I’ll finally have time to catch up on scheduling bookings, approving friends requests on the social media sites, update my website, etc. I hope you all are happy with that! Of course, a lot of that seems like work to me… so I am dousing my hate for it with sugary sweets.

Shopping, clothes & perfume would be better though! Yes, at this point I might have to be bribed to update my own site. I know… I’m getting bad. LOL I’m pre-planning my next shopping trip for when my swelling goes down… Neiman Marcus, Cache, & White House Black Market… hopefully I won’t miss all the good fall sales! If anyone feels like sending me gift cards to my P.O. Box I’d be eternally grateful! I’m not publicly posting the address, but if you are feeling generous I’m happy to give it out. Of course, what girl would turn down gift cards for shopping?

Last week I did an interview for the All Night Long show with The Fox on Radio DenTaTa (NSFW). I believe it was broadcast last week, but the host was kind enough to put it YouTube for those of you who missed it. I’m including the YouTube clips directly into this blog, but the interview is two parts… so be sure to play both!

If you are a stripper making friends becomes a decision process, & can be difficult. Generally when new dancers start I tell them to mind their own business, which in this industry is really good advice. As a new girl keeping your head low & trying not to cause problems lets you go in, make your money, & get out.  Stripper friends, as with other things become an issue of “there’s a time & a place for everything”.

Making friends in this industry can be really risky, especially if you are easily persuaded or don’t have a good head on your shoulders. How many times have you heard about or seen the stereotypical stripper that is strung out on drugs? I won’t lie, it does happen… however it doesn’t have to happen to every dancer. Part of the problem is often that either the dancer doesn’t want to be dancing (or has other problems) & therefore suppresses the emotional distraught through drugs & liquor, or she falls in with the wrong crowd at work. The new dancer wants to have fun, & she wants to fit in… so sometimes she will hang out with the wrong crowd & just “go with the flow”. That “go with the flow” attitude can be dangerous though when suddenly the drugs & alcohol become a habit. By a new dancer keeping her head low she is not making friends at work, but rather learning to concentrate on work & be self reliant.

There is a time when stripper friends are good though, but I only suggest this for established dancers who have been in the industry three or more years. Once you have learned to work it’s good to know which other dancers you can be friends with. To figure this out take a look around you club & watch to see who the “career strippers” & “student strippers” are. Career strippers are the type that see dancing as a business & plan to be in it long term. For many career strippers drinking & doing drugs is not part of the equation, & she may even see it as a way to lose money. Career strippers are often very clean dancers (not providing illegal “extras”) because she doesn’t want to risk her reputation, & wants to make sure that she can get licensed in any city. Student strippers often want to keep a clean record because they plan to one day join the professional working class & don’t want any sort of criminal history… so they won’t provide extras either. Generally these two types of dancers are the best to pick your friends from.

You might be asking yourself at this point after three years why you would need stripper friends. Honestly, you don’t… but they can be useful. Let me give you a few examples.

First, sometimes I’ll talk to a customer & he has a physical type that he likes… thin brunettes. For me to try to sell him a dance would take a lot longer as a curvy blonde than if I were a thin brunette. I’ll ask him if he’s already seen a girl he likes, & if he has I will bring her back to him. Most of the time though he hasn’t spotted his physical type, & that is when I will bring over one of my stripper friends. Now, I could have chosen any girl in the club that matched his description… but instead I chose a stripper friend – someone I know & trust.

A second scenario that just recently happened was when one of my regulars was coming into town during a week that I was traveling, so our schedules didn’t match up. He’s a great customer, very well mannered, pays promptly & tips well… if he didn’t he’d be someone else’s regular ::naughty grin::. However, I have a stripper friend who is new in town & I know she doesn’t have regulars yet but probably needs some money. I asked my customer if he’d be interested in meeting one of my friends, pre-arrange everything, & she walks away with $360 plus tip from him for very little work or time. They both enjoyed their time together, & she didn’t have to hustle him for dances. or weed through the broke customers to find him. He trusted that I would refer him to another good dancer. You may think I’m crazy for referring him to another dancer, but I’m not. If I hadn’t referred him he probably would have gone to a local gentlemen’s club & may have ended up with either a dancer who provides extra or a dancer who he didn’t enjoy. You might think of what I did as insurance, I was insuring myself with a higher probability that he’d see me again when he was in town & that he’d have a good time.

A third situation is if you are a dancer traveling to a city where you have a stripper friend. Sure you can hustle & make your own money, but it’s much easier if your friend who is local can help you out. For example, I traveled out of town this year & at my destination city made money by doing lots of doubles with my friend’s regulars. We danced well together because we already knew each other, & we were both able to make money. Plus, stripper friends often will let you stay at their place for free or for a lot less than a hotel.

Fourth, how many times have you been in a situation where you needed a second dancer for a private party? If you are an established dancer & perform legal private parties in your area you’ve probably been asked to “bring a friend” more than once. Having a stripper friend in a situation like this can either make or break your ability to book a private party.

In all of these situations there is often a bit of karma or “you scratch my back & I’ll scratch yours” involved, meaning that when you help other dancers make money they tend to return the favor. That’s sort of a double bonus to you, & in the end even if you do refer a customer to another stripper friend you’ll probably see that money return as the stripper friend refers you to customers as well. I encourage those of you who are already established in this industry with multiple years of experience to start networking to make stripper friends & treating them well… they are an asset to your business.