The Defcon conference the next day was pretty cool. The speakers were much more charismatic, which was good, as it kept my attention. Running on low sleep, I needed that. The participants of the conference were all some pretty crazy hacker types. It seemed like goth meets raver meets programmer. I met some interesting people, and learned a thing or two about the evil people that are the reason that I have a job. :-)
The next night, I promised my fraternity brother that I'd meet up with him 
so we could catch up a bit. We decided to meet at RumJungle. RumJungle is one of dozens of LasVegas bars that are done up to the hilt with the casino money. The way it works, is that with the huge profits they make from the casino, they make an incredible bar with everything you could imagine. This bar, in turn, brings in more people, who they hope will gamble as well. You have to be somewhat dressed up to get in so I wore a nice 'go-out' type shirt that I packed, but I had to wear it with my wrinkle-free pleated pants and dorky dress shoes. Never pack for a trip when you are drunk. I got in the bar and looked for my friend but couldn't find him. While I was looking around, I met a bunch of girls in a bachelorette party. I told them that it looked like the bride-to-be was way too sober for her own good, and that I'd like to buy her a shot. Shortly after, I found my buddy, and we hung out for a bit. He decided he wanted to leave early, so I stayed with the ladies. They had a checklist (as all bachelorette parties do) of things the bride must do. One was to get a guy to give her a piggyback around an entire bar. I was only too happy to oblige. We made it 95% around when a bouncer made me stop and nearly threw me out. As with most bachelorette parties, the majority of the women were married or engaged, so I said my goodbyes and headed for Utopia.
I went back to my hotel, changed my shirt, got in touch with Emily, and then headed out to Utopia. Once I got inside, I was walking around looking for Jason or Alexis, but couldn't find them. Then, a lovely young lady comes up to me and says "Hi, I don't have any money, would you like to buy me a drink?". Normally, if you say yes, you part with a few bucks and then they head off to see their boyfriend. So I was about to say No, and then I reconsidered. I said "Sure". In retrospect, I'd have never known how disastrous it would have been to say no. I noticed that her friend was incredibly attractive, which might have helped the decision to buy a round. Afterwards, we chatted for a bit, and we got to talking about why I was there, what I did for work, and what they did for work. It turns out they are both exotic dancers at Cheetahs mens club. Supposedly one of the 3 best mens clubs in Vegas. They asked me who I was there with. When I said that I was there by myself, and was looking for people that I didn't see, the one said "Well, Rick, you can hang out with us. My friends are all upstairs. Come on". We go upstairs, and they introduce me to their friends. A couch full of the most amazing looking exotic dancers that I have ever seen. The one introduces me by saying "This is Rick, Hes from out of town and he's really awesome.". Its like that theory that if you have one person in a group/club/clique vouch for you, you're in. Well, this was it. They all scooted apart on the couch and offered me a seat. Man, I was on. Ever since the moment I stepped off the plane, things were going my way. Every girl that I met had a positive vibe. Here I was sitting amongst the best looking women in the entire club, and playing it off like I do this sort of thing all the time. :-) We all sat around for a little bit just talking, and I guess I didn't even need to get in touch with Emily earlier, because she ended up being at the club anyway.
After a little while, Missy (one of the first people that I met) grabbed my arm and told me I was going to go downstairs and dance. We danced for quite a bit, and I discovered a secret organization unknown to most mere mortals. The underground stripper network. As we danced, just about every single dancer that was in the club would come up to Missy and say hi. Then she'd introduce them to me. I'd say hi, and they'd say "Hi, Nice shirt.". Just about everyone liked the shirt. Then we'd talk for a bit, and they'd wander off. Sometimes, I'd leave Missy to dance, and I'd walk around the club saying hi to this new little network of people that I had miraculously infiltrated.
Later that night, as we were dancing, another of Missys friends came up to us. Her name was Rachel, and I'd say that she had to have been the best looking woman in the entire club. She was the kind of woman that men just cant help staring at as she walked by. She came up to Missy, and said that she was supposed to meet people, but couldn't find them. I told her to hang out with us, and asked her if she wanted a drink. She said, "Sure, a drink would be great. Nice shirt." I was in awe. This woman was so incredibly stunning.
Rachel and I danced and talked for quite a while, and she was an awesome person in general. Really sweet, really genuine, and a pretty smart confident person as well. Not really what you think of when you think of exotic dancers. She really had it together, and she was also a great dancer. Well, I guess thats to be expected - occupational hazard. :)
As the club began to wind down, I was walking around talking to people here and there, when Rachel came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go to a party afterwards. When you're on a winning streak, you don't walk away from the table. Yeah, I went.
A guy at the door asked us if we would like a photo as we were leaving. Well, why not. [L to R] - Missy, Me, Rachel, and another Cheetah dancer. (I love the way I look at 3am, after many drinks and endless hours of dancing)
Rachel and I took her Jeep and headed over. The party (as they called it) was actually an afterhours club called Hide-N-Seek. Weird name for a bar. For a bar maybe, but not for a swingers club. Hmm. I knew things were going to be strange when the sign on the door says "If public nudity offends you, please do not enter". Ok, lets take a step back and explain. Hide-N-Seek is a swingers club during the day and evening. By the time we got there it was 7am, and in the guise of an afterhours club. Its a place for clubbers to go after the clubs all shut down, so at this time, it is not a swingers club. Its the space that is normally used by the swingers club which is rented for this after-party. Get it? Ok, all the same, the sign on the door still applies.
We get in and theres maybe 100 people in there. These people look to be a mixture of the elite of Las Vegas (dancers, models, etc) and the die hard party crowd. Only gorgeous people whereever you look. About half men and half women. And about 30% of the women are dancing in their underwear. Theres a room in the back with mattresses, and there are even some people using them. These aren't separate rooms either. Just one big room. Theres a sign on the door to the room that said "Couples Only". Jason (who I did finally end up meeting up with), told me I had to go back and look. Sure enough, it was one of the weirdest things I had ever seen at a club. I wont elaborate on this, as this is not an x-rated web site.
Throughout the course of the night, I would sit down when I got tired of dancing and Rachel would usually sit on my lap for lack of seating space in the club and we'd talk. On one of these occasions, I mentioned to her that I thought one of the girls dancing in her underwear had a nice body. It wasn't said in the way that you'd say it to one of the guys, it was just so noticeably perfect, that it was something that you could point out. She turned to me and said in the most inquisitive tone "Reeeally, do you think so?". I said, "Yeah, don't you?". After a long pause, she nonchalantly whispers "She used to be a guy". Oh my. Sure enough, theres the adams apple. Oh my. Shouldn't I have been able to tell? Oh my. Well, I'd seen it all now. I will never again be impressed with anything on the Jerry Springer show after this night.
At about 12:30 (Sunday Afternoon), we were both pretty tired and pretty hungry. We left and Rachel dropped me off at my hotel. She asked me to come in and see her at work the next night, but I didn't. I just didn't know how I'd feel about seeing a bunch of people that I now considered friends while they were naked. That was just too weird. And then the money thing. Do I not give any money (would that be rude) or do I give them money (does that cheapen the brief freindship that we had)? They were people I'd probably never see again, but all the same, I had great memories as it was, and I was happy to leave it at that.
