Public Dancer

I encountered a most interesting person on the Las Vegas Monorail early this morning. A young woman gets on the train at the Flamingo/Caesars Palace stop and immediately grabs the center pole, swings herself around and says, "hey, pole dancing!" I looked at the young woman and smiled while every muscle in my body resisted the nearly overwhelming urge to burst out in laughter. I discreetly looked at my dear friend and sister Angela, who returned a polite smile.

As the train started moving again, the young woman proceeds to apologize for her actions and I say, "no need to apologize, this is Vegas!" We all laugh and the woman tells us she wouldn't be doing this if her son was with her. She says she has a four year old boy and that before he was born, she would visit Las Vegas two or three times a year. But, this was only her second visit since the boy's birth. I resisted the urge to say, "so, you're making up for lost time," because the young man she was with was trying to get her to sit down. I don't think she even heard him because she started pole dancing again.

After a few more spins, she tells us that before her son's arrival, this-- pole dancing at a strip club-- was her life. To which Angela says, "yes, you appear more than a bit familiar with it."

Once again, my muscles got a workout as I struggled not to laugh. Luckily, our stop came up moments later. As we exited the train and stepped onto the escalator going down, I nearly collapsed from laughter as the train pulled off. The woman, once again shaking her tail feather around that pole.

Through my hysterical, stomach tightening laughter, I thought about Chris Rock's HBO comedy special remarks on the subject of women, dancing, and poles and said to myself, "clearly this woman's father failed."

Oh, Good Evening!