The motto, I’ll try anything once, is one that I try to be true to in my life. For one reason, I live in San Francisco and almost anything goes in this city, which is a big incentive as to why I live here. The other is that life tends to be more fun when you treat it like an adventure. I have come to learn that in order for my culture to remain interesting to me, I have to take advantage of the freedom we all have to try new things. One way I practice this is to force myself to meet new people and follow up with them, especially if they live life as an experiment. It’s these connections to new people, the getting to know them and experiencing their worlds, that ultimately makes my own life that much more exciting.
Last Saturday night was one of those adventurous nights. A friend had invited me to see her dance at Chez Badunkadunk—she explained it was a place where women danced for other women,—which intrigued me on many levels. First, my friend had mentioned that there may be burlesque dancing and that anyone could sign up to dance there in the future. I had thought about dancing in public myself, particularly burlesque since I found the outfits so hot, but I had never been sure that I would enjoy doing it in front of leering men. Having women as an audience seemed like a good testing ground if I was ever going to try. Second, I was finally coming out of my cocoon, the one that wraps itself around you after a break-up. My sexual energy was up and running so I was interested in being in sexy, dancing environments since the dance floor was where I often felt sexiest. Lastly, since it was a dance night for women, I figured she must have meant that it was also a dance night for lesbians. Poonam, my Indian friend, was two steps out of the closet. She had just finished her second relationship, and for those of us whom she called friends, we were ready to show her what she had been missing all of those years.

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