What? You DIDN'T go to a strip club this weekend?

^^^Hey look, it's a giant picture of my head!^^^

The Dizz and I firmly believe in the importance of "Date Nights". A chance to get out of the house, just the two of us, and spend some time together. And more importantly, a chance for me to be motivated enough to take a shower and get out of my sweatpants from the week. Sexy, I know.

Friday night rolled around and so did my craving for Italian. San Francisco has a little neighborhood called North Beach that is known for being the Italian 'hood, and so off we went! We found a little restaurant called Mona Lisa and proceeded to have a really good dinner. I'm talking a bottle of wine, bruschetta, salad, and some amazing spaghetti carbonara.

But what stands out the most from that night, besides the great wine and food, was our conversation. Not so surprisingly, the conversation of travel came up. We were talking about some of our favorite memories from our 6-months of galavanting around the world. That time we rode bikes through the villages in Ubud, just the two of us and a local. We saw a villager bathing in the stream, for crying out loud! It was incredible. Then there was that time we drank poop coffee, and well, how could we ever forget that. We couldn't believe that it has been an ENTIRE YEAR since last New Year's in Rome. We've been back in America for as long as we were even gone now and it's crazy to think sometimes because those memories are still so fresh in our minds. I'm so thankful for them, but I'm getting super antsy to start creating more travel memories!

Anyway, you're probably like, "Michelle! Yeah, we get it, you ate food and talked with your boyfriend. Big. Deal. Get on to the strip club part!"

Okay, okay, so after dinner, we were strolling around North Beach, looking for a bar to grab a post-dinner drink before heading home. And you should know that North Beach is also known for its strippers. Lots and lots of strip clubs.

So as we were walking, I spotted one and said, "Hey! Let's go in here!" 

And then The Dizz gave me a very strange and uncomfortable look.

But I said, fear not! This will be fun! So I walked up to the bouncer and I said, "Hello, bouncer, how much is it for us to go in?"

The bouncer replied, "It's free for you, $5 for him, but I'll let you guys go in for free. Oh, and hey, did you know that this is the WORLD'S FIRST strip club?"

"I did not, good sir, but I'm glad you told me! Even more the reason we should go in!"

And go in we did.

And to all of you that have never been to a strip club, I would like to share some wisdom with you.

There's a reason why no one goes to a strip club at 7:00pm.

It was rough. It was.........very rough.

The only other strip club I've been to was in Vegas at 1:00am, with my brother and sister-in-law. (I know, we're weird like that). And I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, they're all so pretty!!" 
And well, let's just say I wasn't necessarily thinking that Friday night.

The difference between a 1:00am stripper and a 7:00pm stripper is like....how can I put this? Is like the difference between Pamela Anderson circa Baywatch and Pamela Anderson now.

Make sense?

Regardless, the hour and 2 Bud Lights were well worth my time, in my opinion. The strippers were very friendly, one even kissed me on the cheek and asked to sit next to me! And all the while I'm thinking, "I could totally do that." I'm jooookkiinnnggg.  ....Sort of. I mean, tell me you've never wondered if you could be a stripper! I'm not saying literally, just like, if no one would ever know, could you do it?

No? Just me? ...........Well that's awkward.

These times of unemployment have got my mind going to some strange places, I tell ya.

xoxo

P.S. Lots of fun goodies being given away over on Rachel's blog! Check it out :)

A self-conscious blogger.

"I hope you don't compare real life to an edited one."

I read that today and it kind of struck a chord with me. The post talked about how these blogs of ours are just little snippets of our lives and that bloggers are real-life, normal people, complete with their fare share of ups and downs. As the owner of our blog, we get to decide what we want to share with the world and what we want to keep private. We can choose to portray our lives as rainbowy or not-so-rainbowy as we'd like.

Sometimes I struggle with what to share or not. Sometimes I let my guard down and just lay it all out there and sometimes I feel self conscious and clammer up and ignore the blog for days. Sometimes I'm bursting at the seams to share my life with the world and sometimes I don't think my life is all that significant to write about.

Putting your life out there and sharing publicly, via a blog, opens the gates for others to see you, judge you, like you, hate you, and that's just something that comes with the territory I suppose, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want people to like me. I mean, don't we all? But sometimes I think I let this blog consume me too much. I think about the thoughts of who might be reading this more than I should.

For example, I wanted to share that I sent out my first resume yesterday to this little boutique because ever since I was 16 I've always dreamed of having my own one day and I decided I needed to start somewhere if I was ever going to learn and make it happen and so I'm jumping in. But I didn't know how to talk about it without feeling a little embarrassed about going after yet another career when two others failed so recently.

I was going to mention that we finally got our tree today because we finally got some extra money to make it happen without dipping into our savings or using a credit card but I hesitated because talking about money can seem so tacky to some.

I wanted to talk about the side job I've been doing for the last few weeks but because it wasn't anything amazing or long term, I didn't know where to begin. Plus, with the comments I've read about people's assumptions on our financial situation, I didn't want to seem defensive.

I love this blog and I love that I have a place to vent and document and remember. I love the community I've connected with. But what I want to remember is that when I'm old and grey and blogging is an old and foreign concept, I'LL be the one that remembers this space and I'LL be the one, and only one, who cares (Okay, maybe my future children will care too.). So what I write today, though I love making people laugh and perhaps maybe inspire every now and then, is and should ultimately be for me and my little brain that is the worst at remembering and I'm sure will only continue to get worse the older I get.

I hope I can work up the courage to write with more confidence and less self-doubt. And I also hope to always remember that all of us, when choosing to share whatever details we choose, are more alike than we realize whether it's written or not. It's easy to compare your own life to someone else's you're reading about and feel that perhaps your life is lacking or perhaps maybe theirs is, but it's a good reminder to know that they're human, just like you.

Happy Friday, friends. As always, thanks for listening. :)

xoxo