Hot Pink Follies (plus life stuff)
^That's the name of the one-year anniversary Pink Velvet Burlesque show I went to last night (they also have a myspace). I went with one of my coworker friends, Karen, and 3 of her friends, who I hadn't met before but they were great. Esp Heather, at whose house us 4 women congregated beforehand and had a few drinks and talked about burlesque, porn and the morality of it - Heather had written and defended a paper in uni that posited it was, in fact, moral - bdsm, and cats. LOL. We're all cat owners and Heather's kitty is an SPCA-rehabbed stray that she's only had for a few months so is still getting accustomed to her. Adorable and pretty social, too. The funny thing is, Karen is...I think she's a great person and aside from my two close friends here (well, one here and the one that moved back to NB), she's the only one who has any real sense of who I am outside of work, i.e., who Tas is. I can almost connect with her on a fannish level b/c she understands this world, but at the same time, I've never been able to quite make the leap to full friendship with her. I had a discussion with femmenerd about it once and concluded that it's b/c Karen exhibits a lot of behaviours/attitudes, like the general timidity and constant apologising and self-denigrating, that *I* used to exhibit, and it makes me uncomfortable in large doses because it's like staring my past in the face sometimes. But I do really enjoy hanging out with her sometimes and she occasionally finds out about some things like this that are less mainstream and usually invites me, b/c we're close enough that she knows I'm up for that kind of stuff.
Anyway, we met the 5th member of our group at the Marquee doors, Tom. He'd bought my ticket with his in advance and wouldn't let me pay him for it. Told me I could just buy him a drink, except every time I thought about it, he already had one or was asking me if *I* wanted anything! lol. We got second row seats - first was reserved - and proceeded to have a delightful evening. The emcee was Rouge Fatale, a tranny dragqueen cum stand-up comic and she was great. The show itself was a mixture of classic burlesque, sort of comedy burlesque, and variety/sideshow-type acts. By 'comedy burlesque' I mean it was a burlesque skit but played for laughs for than anything else, like 'Skippy to My Lou' which involved, um, a costumed mandog and a woman just coming home from work with a giant jar of peanut butter...yeah, they went there. *dies laughing* It was hilarious. Definitely not an event for the easily offended. :P Interestingly, most of the performers had at least a little bit of ink, and two of the women had full back tattoos. The troupe leader, Miss C, didn't have any ink but damn, I think she has probably the prettiest breasts I've ever seen and she was completely unselfconscious about dancing in a G-string and pasties. Go her. Karen took pix, btw, so once she sends them to me I'll post a few.
Venus Envy, the local woman-friendly sex shop, was one of the sponsors and provided some of the door prizes that were given out at intermission. Some single girl went home with a bondage kit and someone else had...I don't know, she was on the other side of the stage but she came up and asked about it, saying that it seemed to be a collar but didn't buckle. Rouge pointed out her favourite leatherman near where the girl was standing and he kind of coughed and told her there was a piece missing. Hee. I found the whole exchange very amusing for some reason.
I got asked a few times by Heather and Stephanie to divulge my secret for getting my red lipgloss to stay put for the entire night, lol. I enjoy that. I did explain, at least as much of an explanation as there is; some of it is honestly just that my skin takes well to colour. Though I did touch up twice...but that's damn good for over 9 hours of wearage. :D
Afterwards we all went back to Heather's and just talked and talked, about literature and world events and archaeological findings and science and the caste system in India and all sorts of intellectual things. I'm not sure what time Stephanie left, but the rest of us went at 3 a.m. lol. I wasn't uninvolved but I wasn't uber talkative either - Heather and Tom are both chatty *and* interesting, so I was content to mostly listen unless I had something to contribute. But oh my God, it was so fucking good to have discussions with people in person that actually stretched my brain and made me THINK, y'know?
And it came up again that Halifax - and Nova Scotia in general - is where people go to retire or raise families, which is something that metalicious1 and I talked about a couple of weeks ago when we met up, although that was in a more personal context (as in me with my, "Get me the fuck out of here!" bit). And I totally do realise that some of my intense dissatisfaction and feelings of stagnation are related to where I work, because Sackville is very much *not* Halifax, and things like last night just prove that completely. I sort of wonder if I should re-think the plan to not bother searching for another job between now and when I leave for England, even though that would mean a) job-searching, which I really kinda hate, and b) losing my medical/dental benefits for 3 months while I completed the probationary period at the new job. That's 2 of the main reasons why that in-house position would've worked well for me. But I didn't get it, and I know I could aim at a senior CSR rep position b/c one might be opening up soonish, but I'm really not sure I want to. I've come to realise that the only pleasure I get out of my job anymore is answering questions/helping train the newbies and the ability to listen to music most of the day. I have decided that I'm not going to move until next January; I'd been aiming at the fall but I'd like to stay here for Christmas since God only knows the next time I'd specifically spend Christmas with my parents, right. So I have 8 months here to save money and plan and basically consolidate things, which isn't an unreasonable amount of time to switch jobs first, even if I would feel a bit guilty about signing on somewhere *knowing* I'd be leaving. There's also a certain fear that if I do that and find a job I really like, that it'll affect my determination to do this b/c I'll start thinking well it's not so bad after all, and that I do not want. I want to go to England, more than I've wanted to do anything for a very long time. I'm not so much afraid of losing that desire, since I can't honestly remember a time when I *didn't* want to go to England, but I'm afraid that if I'm not getting the push from being so frustrated with everything then I'll chicken out, essentially - take the path of least resistance, aka do nothing, as I often do. *sigh* I might be a strong person but I'm really, really not a brave one, despite occasional appearances.
Wow, and that turned into a super-long ramble about loads of other stuff, too. O_o
Anyway, we met the 5th member of our group at the Marquee doors, Tom. He'd bought my ticket with his in advance and wouldn't let me pay him for it. Told me I could just buy him a drink, except every time I thought about it, he already had one or was asking me if *I* wanted anything! lol. We got second row seats - first was reserved - and proceeded to have a delightful evening. The emcee was Rouge Fatale, a tranny dragqueen cum stand-up comic and she was great. The show itself was a mixture of classic burlesque, sort of comedy burlesque, and variety/sideshow-type acts. By 'comedy burlesque' I mean it was a burlesque skit but played for laughs for than anything else, like 'Skippy to My Lou' which involved, um, a costumed mandog and a woman just coming home from work with a giant jar of peanut butter...yeah, they went there. *dies laughing* It was hilarious. Definitely not an event for the easily offended. :P Interestingly, most of the performers had at least a little bit of ink, and two of the women had full back tattoos. The troupe leader, Miss C, didn't have any ink but damn, I think she has probably the prettiest breasts I've ever seen and she was completely unselfconscious about dancing in a G-string and pasties. Go her. Karen took pix, btw, so once she sends them to me I'll post a few.
Venus Envy, the local woman-friendly sex shop, was one of the sponsors and provided some of the door prizes that were given out at intermission. Some single girl went home with a bondage kit and someone else had...I don't know, she was on the other side of the stage but she came up and asked about it, saying that it seemed to be a collar but didn't buckle. Rouge pointed out her favourite leatherman near where the girl was standing and he kind of coughed and told her there was a piece missing. Hee. I found the whole exchange very amusing for some reason.
I got asked a few times by Heather and Stephanie to divulge my secret for getting my red lipgloss to stay put for the entire night, lol. I enjoy that. I did explain, at least as much of an explanation as there is; some of it is honestly just that my skin takes well to colour. Though I did touch up twice...but that's damn good for over 9 hours of wearage. :D
Afterwards we all went back to Heather's and just talked and talked, about literature and world events and archaeological findings and science and the caste system in India and all sorts of intellectual things. I'm not sure what time Stephanie left, but the rest of us went at 3 a.m. lol. I wasn't uninvolved but I wasn't uber talkative either - Heather and Tom are both chatty *and* interesting, so I was content to mostly listen unless I had something to contribute. But oh my God, it was so fucking good to have discussions with people in person that actually stretched my brain and made me THINK, y'know?
And it came up again that Halifax - and Nova Scotia in general - is where people go to retire or raise families, which is something that metalicious1 and I talked about a couple of weeks ago when we met up, although that was in a more personal context (as in me with my, "Get me the fuck out of here!" bit). And I totally do realise that some of my intense dissatisfaction and feelings of stagnation are related to where I work, because Sackville is very much *not* Halifax, and things like last night just prove that completely. I sort of wonder if I should re-think the plan to not bother searching for another job between now and when I leave for England, even though that would mean a) job-searching, which I really kinda hate, and b) losing my medical/dental benefits for 3 months while I completed the probationary period at the new job. That's 2 of the main reasons why that in-house position would've worked well for me. But I didn't get it, and I know I could aim at a senior CSR rep position b/c one might be opening up soonish, but I'm really not sure I want to. I've come to realise that the only pleasure I get out of my job anymore is answering questions/helping train the newbies and the ability to listen to music most of the day. I have decided that I'm not going to move until next January; I'd been aiming at the fall but I'd like to stay here for Christmas since God only knows the next time I'd specifically spend Christmas with my parents, right. So I have 8 months here to save money and plan and basically consolidate things, which isn't an unreasonable amount of time to switch jobs first, even if I would feel a bit guilty about signing on somewhere *knowing* I'd be leaving. There's also a certain fear that if I do that and find a job I really like, that it'll affect my determination to do this b/c I'll start thinking well it's not so bad after all, and that I do not want. I want to go to England, more than I've wanted to do anything for a very long time. I'm not so much afraid of losing that desire, since I can't honestly remember a time when I *didn't* want to go to England, but I'm afraid that if I'm not getting the push from being so frustrated with everything then I'll chicken out, essentially - take the path of least resistance, aka do nothing, as I often do. *sigh* I might be a strong person but I'm really, really not a brave one, despite occasional appearances.
Wow, and that turned into a super-long ramble about loads of other stuff, too. O_o