A First!

As is his wont, my best friend, who lives in New York, told me he is in town on short-notice, like 24 hours' notice.  There was one time he did it and left me a voicemail, but I was at a concert and ate afterward and by the time I turned my phone on and heard he was in Minnesota, it was 1 in the morning.  This is kind of annoying, but he's my best friend, and I love him, so I made some time last night after the football game's win to see him.

Because of my rough week and that I ate at the game I wanted to overrule him, and because I was feeling kind of self-destructive I wanted to go to a stripclub.  But almost immediately after saying or messaging that (can't remember which), I regretted it.  It's not as if I have the money, and I really wanted to talk to him.  If I had to buy yet another beer at a bar to do so, you know, maybe that'll be fine.

But then I hedged again when I called him back.  There was one place he would be amenable to going, and eventually I kind of coaxed him (and myself too, actually) into going all the way down to My Favorite Stripclub (Cover Division).  I didn't initially want to go and spend money at this club so far away from me this night; that just was not my mood.  But I wanted to talk to him, so I figured we'd just kick it and ignore, or at least give no more than a passing glance, at the strippers.

So we talked.  It was a battle of controlling the conversation; I wanted to vent about the club and this guy at work, but he wanted to have his questions answered, all of them about the club.  I needed validation from him that what I was feeling was OK.  Moreover, I am going to trust him when he said that both situations will blow over.  Finally, I felt a sense of salvation and confidence when he said I should not apologize to this guy at work on Tuesday.  I will thus come in and do my job.  Because my friend said so.

And through all of this, almost three-and-a-half hours, not once, not once, did we spend a dime on strippers.  I bought the first round of beers and he bought chicken wings for us to share, and he had a couple more beers and obviously we both paid for cover.  (Plus I gave a dollar to the bouncers on the way out.)  But despite us saying late in the night that we thought about getting dances, we didn't.  Most of the girls saw us chatting with each other and stayed away.  Only near closing time, when we were kind of itching for some action, did two girls come up to us.  We both said no because we had specific girls in mind, and none of them approached us.  So, we left.

I spent $28 on cover, drinks and tip.  And that's it.  And this is the first time I hung out at a stripclub without spending money on strippers.  There were a couple times where I dashed in quickly at My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Edition) to see who's working and left five seconds later.  But this was a full-fledged strip club event, and I didn't spend a penny on ass nor titties.

I think that's ... notable.