insults from 3rd string strippers

and another sign of aging, reminding me that the way i look at my classmates and think how old they've become while i've stayed the same, is the way my classmates look at me and think the same.

this weekend, after a bout of gambling (giving reparations to the tribe), four of us ended up at a local strippery. once made famous by nick nolte for hanging out there and stalking a stripper in full mug shot glory, once made more famous by being the only strip club that shared a building with a head start, and once made even more famous by my friend dino who, after attending one evening, asked loudly if it was burn victim night, scooters is low brow local stripper entertainment thirteen glorious miles from dowagiac. the second strip club, 13 miles in a different direction from dowagiac, was shut down last year after being busted for various counts of prostitution, drug peddling, and hiv infections.

at any rate, scooters is entertaining. and cheap. one gets to appreciate a fine variety of body styles and drug addictions. this evening there were about six women, and only one who had recently (perhaps earlier that evening) given birth. we were the only customers.

needless to say, we were popular. then one of the women, who had taken root at our table, a delightful 23-year-old dominatrix, was talking to n and asked if she had married an older man. n told her yes, she had married an older man (me)--one year older. shocked, the dominatrix looked at me and said, "god, are you under a lot of stress? you look a lot older than her."

she spent the rest of the evening trying to ascertain the cause of my stress. it was an urgent mission, i suppose, since i appear so close to death.

i am left to wonder: if a stripper, who makes a living lying to people in a positive way to get money, says i look awful, what do the people i don't pay think.

photo absent from this post intentionally.