Shoes. Shoes. Shoes. Shoes.

I worked Friday-Saturday back to back shifts, which, while profitable, totally kicked my ass physically. Part of it because of my dedication to pole dance, and part of it is because I just bought my first pair of 7" light up Ellies. By "dedication to pole dance" I mean, I worked Friday night 8PM to 4AM; got home and went to bed at 6, woke my ass up at 10AM for pole class where the instructor decided to give us an extended session to work on conditioning. And of course, I busted my ass on Saturday night as well, 8PM to 3AM. Gotta say my shoulder mounts are looking pretty good though. Practice does make perfect.





Anyway, when it comes to shoes, I'm normally a Pleaser girl (for comfort) or Tony (for style) but Pleaser only offers light up shoes in a 6" platform. I have a theory that says the more experienced the stripper, the higher the heel. Now almost into my first full year dancing in a "big time" market like Atlanta, I consider myself an old hand. Therefore, I've earned the right to upgrade to 7" platforms.

I am not crazy about Ellies, since they run narrow. This particular pair is so tight, the big toe on my right foot is a bit numb from nerve compression, no joke. (I really need to hit that shit with a hairdryer to loosen up the plastic.) But DAMN, do I love those light up shoes! I would say those are the ultimate stripper shoe - not only are they light up, 7" platforms, but they are CLEAR. I've never owned clear shoes before, but now I can see why they're so popular: they visually elongate the leg more than any other shoe. I caught myself in the mirror the other night while wearing them, and couldn't help but admire how long and lean my legs looked.

There is actually quite a lot of consideration that goes into shopping for exotic shoes. I always have to buy shoes with an ankle strap, since I do a lot of pole tricks, particularly spins. I'm also inordinately fond of doing inversions. Godforbid I do a chopper and end up with a shoe flying off my foot, hitting a customer in the head. It's happened before. (Though, not to me.)

Then there's the consideration of foot coverage. My current favorite pair of shoes are these red Tony's:





Not only are they cute as hell, but notice that the top of the foot is covered. This is an important consideration to make if you do a lot of climbing OR foot-clutch based tricks. The foot clutch is probably my least favorite pole trick, but I can't get into a gypsy any other way...

Finally, there's one last point I have to take into consideration before buying a pair of shoes: resale value. Stripper heels hold a sacred place for foot fetishists... particularly women with really tiny feet, like mine. (I wear a size 6, but always buy a size 5 because dancer shoes stretch out over time.) Light colored shoes, particularly with foot prints, sell well. I sold an old pair of Pleaser mules for $200 on ebay. Considering I originally paid $40 for them, I definitely profited off something I was going to throw away anyway. (I promptly reinvested that $200 into new shoes that I will also sell, when the time comes. It's the circle of shoe addiction!)

Seriously though, I'm pretty sure that part of the reason I love being a stripper so much is because I get to wear awesome shoes. Stripper shoes are WAY more comfortable than regular heels. Outside the club? Sweatpants and sneaker all day, every day. I'm honestly quite fashion challenged. But in the club? I'm a motherfucking peacock! Watch me strut.

I wish I could buy Weleda Arnica Massage Oil in bulk.

Last night was better - a lot of people, but not a lot of money spending going on. I had to hustle REALLY hard and still only had a rather mediocre night. I am EXHAUSTED from all the dances!

I'm getting really tired of talking to customers. I think I will start faking a Russian accent so I can pretend my English isn't good enough to have to waste time talking to customers, and then I can get straight to "Hello, honey! My name Elena. Would you like dance?" I will tell them I'm from Kazakhstan.

Last night I had a Hispanic customer come up to me THREE times and say, "eyyyy! JAPONAISE ah? EY LIKE!" First two times I shook my head and said, "no, not Japanese." Third time, I screamed at him in front of the whole club: "For fucks sake I'm not fucking Japanese!!"

This whole week has been an excellent reminder why I should stay in school.

Stay in school, kids.

Tonight I had my worst night ever working at the Oasis Goodtime Emporium. I made a whopping $114 after house fees. On top of that, I owe the club $50 for missing a weekend shift the previous week. (I had told them that I would be out of town, but the club policy is that we have to work a weekend shift in order to work during the following week.) Apparently weekdays after a holiday weekend are notoriously bad. I shouldn't have showed up at all - it wasn't profitable, and in fact, has rather dampened my mojo. I can only hope that taking tomorrow off will let my hustle mojo recover to profitable levels for Friday and Saturday night...

So. My net was $64. For 8 hours of work. That's pretty fucking insulting.

On the upside, it has definitely lit a fire under my ass to focus on school next semester. I love being a dancer, but damn, nights like these make me want to ensure that my sole source of income is never going to be something as inconsistent as dancing can be. I think I actually look forward to getting a "real job" now.

Oh. I did manage to get the DJ to play me "Lotion" by the Greenskeepers. Nobody got the joke. I didn't make shit on stage. Just one of those days...