Between Drain STH and Cherry Darling

Saturday night I was once again flying down 75 with the lights of Dallas snaking all around me, as I often find myself.. always with someplace to be, and usually right after I get done being somewhere else. I had Drain STH's version of Ace of Spades playing and as I sang with her "..you win some, lose some, its all the same to me- The pleasure is to play, it makes no difference what you say.." I thought about all the other times I'd sang along with that album and where I was driving all those times. I think about driving back home sometimes, and how if I drive from Allen downtown and get off at say exit 1A, that's as far as it is between Dieterich and Effingham, a drive I made so often down the lonely highway driving fast in the dark. Because I'd made the drive so many time it felt like an eternity to drive it one more time.
I do miss the feeling sometimes of being able to get out on a county highway and just drive, alone, with no cars. Drive down the center line if you want.
But back to Saturday. Where I was going was Carson's Live, a club in North Dallas. And once there I wound up dabbling in the traditional moonlighting gig of models, actresses, and ballet dancers everywhere... go-go dancing.
Don't worry Mom, I wasn't naked. As the night went on, I began to suspect that the bikini-sized costume was less for the purpose of being sexy, and more because you wouldn't survive the dancing if you were wearing much more clothes. Its about the best workout I've ever had. It's more or less like nights I spent with my sister at Upside Downtown, a gay bar back in glamorous Carbondale, IL, except for the most part no lesbians buy you drinks. And of course you can never slow down. And I get paid to do it. Go-go dancing isn't the only job available in club promotions, there are also shot girls and minglers and I hear next time we will have girls on swings. But personally my first pick would be go-go. I'd rather be on stage than in the crowd, as always.
I had glowing rings on my fingers, and a black fan in my hand and just danced as long and hard as I could.. And I didn't share Cherry Darling's sentiments at all. To me its almost like getting paid to go out. And I think, like going out to the club as a patron, it can be as skanky as you make it. Or you can not make it skanky.
By the end of the night, I had realized that probably the important thing about go-go dancers is not providing eye candy, but inciting the female club goers to get wild. Some girl in the back of the room was up on a table by the end of the night, I'd like to think I helped inspire that. I had also pulled every muscle between my abs and my knees, and I never wanted to look at my six inch heels again.
I drove home at 2:30, with the moon low and full and weird in my rear view, feeling like I was in a bubble because the outside sounds were having a hard time getting through the speaker ring in my ears. Pretty oddly similar to being back in IL, stumbling into the Steak n Shake after screaming my heart out with the band. And I don't know that anyone from back home would be proud of my most recent addition to the resume, but when you think about it its really not a bad fit for me.