Part 1: Sometimes Dreams Do Come True

I went to a strip club last night. The Great Alaskan Bush Company is apparently notorious for being the “classiest strip club outside of Vegas” (according to my friend, it is the tourist strip club in Anchorage - who knew there were strip clubs for tourists and strip clubs for locals). A regular hang out spot, I was told, even the women come there to hang out. And, once I became desensitized to all of the tits, ass, and pussy, it was sort of like a normal night’s activity. It was more like watching a show, or going to the circus than it was like hanging out at a bar since everyone’s attention was focused in one general direction (the naked women) rather than scattered over the variety of intentions found in a bar. It was, as my friend put it, a sort of amusement park. I didn’t find it particularly arousing or erotic (I actually felt the opposite of those), but I was never bored, so I guess I can understand the entertainment value of the whole thing.

The truth is, I’ve wanted to go to a strip club for a long time. There is an allure there similar to my fascination with debutantes, sororities, Texas high school football, and the mafia. It’s rooted in curiosity about a culture that exists side by side with, but is very different from my own. And, if I’m being honest, I have several glorified fantasies of those lives not lived. I mean, really, what girl hasn’t wondered at some point about what it’d be like to be a stripper. So yeah, I’ve wanted to go for a long time, but I was always reticent for fear of shattering the illusions I have about the glamorous lives of happy strippers. I didn’t want to see the depressing reality of sleazy bars, disgusting old men, and miserable, bitter women. I figured that I would just chose wisely so that the strip club I would eventually go to would be clean and classy and not too much of a let down. Who knew I would find all that and more on my first real night out in Alaska? (I love that this is one of the first things I’ve done other than medicine in AK)