Sex Work--preface

"Now I can accept that having been a stripper means I may always be an easy
target for ridicule. Act cheap, reap the cheap shot, right?
[But in my evolution] I'm less distracted by outsider derision and insider
propaganda: the slut-baiting, the proselytizing, the rationalizations.
I'm learning to examine the chaos of my past yet remain in the present.
I'm learning to repress less and discriminate more.
Through this account-settling and inventory-taking, I may be "better".
Less angry. Less defensive.
I'm more realistic about what can't be wished, or litigated, away--the burn
rate, the danger, the market demand for novelty, youth and beauty.
And I'm more concerned with my quality of life than my shelf life.
I'm definitely more balanced.
But I'm nowhere near finished.
And I'm nowhere near Zen.
Honey."

- excerpted from Strip City by Lily Burana

Getting Started...

After years of watching "Sex and the City" and now "Secret Diary of a London Call Girl", reading about sex, sex workers, strippers, dating debacles and human sexual interactions, I've finally gotten to my inspiration point and found my niche. Year after year, my best friend gives me a journal and says, "Please write everything down; someday I'm going to publish it. I would never believe the shit that happens to you...except that I know you, and I know it's true."

And so...that's how I'll begin this log of stories.

A little about me: I'm 30-ish, have a wonderful life, am eccentric and lively. I have a very conservative day job, and I generally keep my work life very separate from my private life. I had a serious boyfriend (almost 20 years my senior) for four years, and he helped shape much of my attitudes about relationships and sex, and certainly not for the better. He was darkly handsome, charismatic and had the most spectacular cock. After we split, I started serial dating, mainly through online outlets, and it's from those experiences that most of my stories originate and bring us to the present.

And so my stories begin...

- JN