So was this a company? 

This was an agency. 

So you worked for an agency? 

Yeah I did, for about a year and a half. And it was a good thing, because it is hard to. You hear about women who just start out on their own but you need that support and someone behind you and someone to talk to and so it was a good thing and a few, about two years ago, I thought to myself, ‘God this is such a fucking hassle, maybe I’ll go back to an agency.’  And plus you have that building client base that they have so I hadn’t realized how much these places are geared to women who are just starting and don’t know what they’re doing. I went to like two interviews and they were both like, ‘Okay, and this is what you’re doing…’ and I’m like really? Really? Oh please!  And I thought, ‘God, I know more about this than you do. I’m not working for you.’ 

Maybe you should start your own agency, have you thought about that? 

More hassle more risk.  A LOT more hassle.  So yes, I have thought about that.  But, there’s two phases to any business, the starting up and then the running.  I would be super good at the running but starting up, eh. 

What made you decide to go off on your own? 

You make a lot more money that way.  I had some problems there, the boss was an ass.  And he was really erratic and it was getting to the point where some of my clients were saying, ‘You know I really like you, I wanna see you, but I just can’t stand these idiots.  Could you give me your personal number?’  And back then it was…cell phones weren’t like they are now, and I thought, 'this guy is losing me money.  I am losing money because these people are idiots.’  And how hard is their job anyway?  So I went out on my own.  I make a lot more money but its a lot more hassle.  A lot more hassle.  You have to do your own advertising, you have to answer the damn phone, and you have to do your own screening.  It’s a huge amount of hassle.  And it’s boring because you’re by yourself all day.  So I do miss that aspect of it, it’s been a long time now, but I do miss that aspect of it, having somebody else to talk to.  You know someone else to spend the day with and not just be at home by myself all day. 

At the agency you just kind of went there and they kinda said, ‘Hey, go there and go there?’ 

Well, and again back then, this was...ugh, I hate to tell people how long ago it was. I lie these days and say I haven’t been doing sex work for that long but I have. Um, you had pagers and so, on the one hand, you could take off with your pager no problem.  But, you know, for one thing everyones lying to their families that they have a day job anyway so we all would just sit at this guy’s house all day watch TV and chat…because you didn’t have anyfuckingthing else to do.  And so it was the comradery and its friendly and these are other women you could talk to and so I do miss that aspect of it.  It actually amuses me, do you ever watch movies where they always show pimps or drug dealers and all they do is just sit around all day and drink?  That’s what they really do.  They do, they just sit around all day and people come by and they’re in and they’re out.  That’s really what they do.  I never intended to do it for so long.  And even now, people who I’m out to, I lie about how long it’s been.  

You never expected to do it that long? 

Nu uh, not even close. 

What’s kept you in it? 

It pays really well.  Well, and the flip, after all this time am I really gonna go back to working forty hours a week for somebody else?  Showing up at a specific time, really?  On the one hand, probably gonna have to do that…but to give up this flexibility after this much time.  I’ve probably screwed myself because I should have quit sooner because then it wouldn’t be such a shock.  But to give it up after all this time of doing whatever I want all the damn time, to go back?  (She shudders...) 

Are you saving a nest egg? 

You know I should be.  But easy come easy go. So, no.  But I should and I feel bad not doing it. 

Maybe you will later, you’re still very young. 

No, I’m like a thousand in sex worker years.  I told my friend when I turned 35, ‘I’m old,’and she said, ‘You are old for a hooker or a cat not a person!’ 

When you first started were you a promiscuous person?  At first was it odd to just hook up with somebody? 

Not really.  You know I had, everyone assumes that you must have had this huge amount of sex, not really.  I mean, I don’t think I was outside the norm at that time.  I certainly wasn’t a virgin but I don’t think I was outside of the norm.  I had only been with a few different men but I didn’t have a problem with it.  I had a series of monogamous relationships and I always liked sex.  I always had a lot of sex.  I personally feel that I’ve always spent…I had this client one time who described it as a pie chart, the pie chart of your brain of everything that you’re thinking of and he always said that sex always took up more of his pie chart and I thought that was good.  It’s impossible to know because everybody lies.  And especially for women, everybody lies.  But I’ve always felt like I do spend more time, money, and effort acquiring sex than other people.  It always seemed to be more of my focus than it was for other people but it’s impossible to know because they’re all liars.  No one tells the truth.  So it did seem like it was something that meant more to me than it did to the people around me but, you know, so what.  I think I was well within the American norm at that time…kind of crossed over since. 

Was the agency what you expected? 

I guess I kind of expected, I guess I don’t know what I expected.  I guess I didn’t have a clear expectation.  I was surprised that everyone was so boring.  There were these two ladies who worked there and they would always get two copies of the Dispatch everyday so that they could do the crossword puzzle together.  They actually had two subscriptions of the Dispatch to come to that building everyday so they could do the crossword puzzle together.  Like, this is what you people do when I’m not here, really?  And like, we watched General Hospital like everyday, it was just, these people are just so damn….cause you think on TV, you know, hookers and sex workers are very exciting and they’re out and they’re doing all these amazing things. No, there just fuckin’ sittin’ around. 

They’re just like everybody else? 

Just like everybody else.  So boring. 

And none of them were crack heads or anything like that? 

No, not really.  Some of them, to be fair, a lot of these women, and again I don’t know how representative my experience is, but they were kind of all over the place.  They were not super reliable.  If they were super reliable they’d have a straight job.  And of course most of them are poor.  But no, they’re not all sitting around shooting heroin, you know.  They’re all smokers but, so is everybody who’s poor.