My Brief Life as an Exotic Dancer

The sunlight through the curtains, my room aglow in butter yellow. A loud bang from the work site next door. Their giant, ancient electric welding machine blew a fuse, a big one at that, or something. At least no one was hurt from what I can tell.
Last night I had a weird dream. I was in a night club and pulled up to play a game by an emcee. Me, my American friend here in Astana WB and a girl named Katya. We were competing with another team made up of a Turk and two local girls. First we were given big trays and had to go around getting money from people. We danced, jumped on tables, got on our knees, whatever it took to get the crowd to throw money on our tray. After that, the emcee piled all the money from both teams on a tray, added another 10,000 tenge (roughly $100) and made us play another game. This one had each team doing a mass striptease in front of the crowd. Before I knew it, in the dream, I was dancing around with Katya in my underwear, WB, with a big tattoo on his chest was dancing around us too in only his long black underwear. There was one of those poles that strippers use and we swung around it, Katya and I writhing around to the hoots and hollers of the crowd. The emcee wanted Katya, who was jumping around in only a black bra and jeans, to take her pants off but apparently she said she wasn’t wearing underwear. After a few minutes, it seems we won, the other team not taking off a stitch of clothing. We wound up getting the tray of cash which amounted to about $150 ($50 each). We were cheered and happily split up the money on the side lines as a male and female stripper came out to writhe correctly around the pole (unlike Katya and I). Wow, what a vivid dream. I usually don’t dream so clearly and with such detail. But wait, there’s 5,000 tenge ($50) in my pocket? Oh my God it really DID happen!!!
Yes ladies and gentlemen readers, My brief career as a night club stripper in Astana flashes before my eyes this morning. It was a short lived job but it was fun while it lasted. Sorry to say, my camera was not at hand to provide pictures to go with the story so you’ll just have to use your imagination. I’m sure in a town like this, this could get back to me but I don’t care. One can’t the upright ESL specialist all the time right? Need to let down one’s hair and have a bit of fun now and then. Hey, at least I have my dignity and didn’t take of my underwear (my mother would never forgive me on that one). So yes, my Saturday night posse decided to expand our once a week dinners to the realm of nightclubs. After a hearty meal at our favorite haunt, Café Shimkent, we headed toward "Seoul" one of the local clubs across the street. It was slow when we got there but started picking up. Got some good dancing in before we headed home around three. I love dancing and going out but I’m starting to worry about my hearing. The music these days in clubs is so loud, I swear I’m going to go deaf if I keep going to clubs. Today my ears have that muffled ringing that you all know what I’m talking about.
Was supposed to go fishing with Gena Goose but he hasn’t called me. I guess I could call him, but the choice between sitting on a frozen river somewhere fishing through a hole in the ice or laying around in bed reading and writing, I’m going to choose the latter. Happy Sunday y ‘all.