How she became - 7

<p>HOW WE BECAME FRIENDS<br /> <br /> In my prvious blogs I've explained how Funny Girl became my ATF and how we became club buddies.&nbsp; But some of you may also be interested in how we made the transition to real friendship.<br /> <br /> As I previously explained, for over&nbsp; year I was probably her best customer, visiting with her at her club once a week.&nbsp; In addition we had started getting together once in a while OTC for dinner.&nbsp; Toward the end of this period she was becoming disallusioned with her club, and she and a friend started visiting other clubs in the DC and Baltimore areas.&nbsp; In February I&nbsp;went to Key West on vacation for 2 weeks.&nbsp; And when I returned she was gone.&nbsp; I knew she had been thinking of quitting, I just didn't know when, or where she'd go next.<br /> <br /> When I discovered she was gone, I made the rounds of several&nbsp;clubs that I knew she had&nbsp;been interested in.&nbsp; But she wasn't there.&nbsp; So finally I went back to her original club and asked the house&nbsp;mom, who was good friends with her.&nbsp; I would have done that initially&nbsp;but I wasn't sure she'd tell me - she never really approved of me&nbsp;spending so much time&nbsp;this young girl who she regarded almost as a daughter.&nbsp;&nbsp;But&nbsp;I was&nbsp;wrong, she told&nbsp;me that Funny Girl was no longer dancing, she had taken a&nbsp;job as a cocktail waitress at a sports pub.&nbsp; So I planned on visiting her the following week.&nbsp; And before I had the chance she called me and told me where she was working&nbsp;and invited me to come see here there.&nbsp; (The exact same thing later happened again - I'm convinced neither one was coincidence.)<br /> <br /> Turned out that after visiting several different strip clubs, Funny Girl concluded that she didn't want to be a stripper any more, she wanted to be a waitress in a strip club.&nbsp; So she picked a strip club that she liked and applied&nbsp;for a&nbsp;waitress job there, was told they had no onpnings, but that the same people also owned a sports pub up the street and they did have an opening.&nbsp; So that's where she ended up.&nbsp; (She did later work as a waitress&nbsp;at that&nbsp;strip club.)&nbsp; So I had a new club, and it was a sports pub not a strip club.&nbsp; But I didn't care, I figured it would save me money.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> So I started to spend time once a week at this sports pub.&nbsp; She got in the habit of saving me a table in her section (she wasn't supposed to do that) and whenever&nbsp;she wasn't too busy she'd sit and join me (she wasn't supposed to do that either but the managers were ;pretty laid back.)&nbsp; We also got into another habit which lasted several years - she'd order for me withou asking and she'd help me eat it.&nbsp; So I never ordered, she just brought some wine and whatever food looked good to her that night, and if she wanted dessert (I almost never eat dessert) she'd order that too.&nbsp; And when it came time to leave she never gave me a bill - I'd just hand her $100 and she'd pocket the difference.&nbsp; Sometimes her BF and/or brother would come in and they'd sit with me too.&nbsp; Although at that time he wasn't quite her BF yet, he was her closest friend.&nbsp; And her drug supplier.<br /> <br /> And then one night I came in and she was really upset.&nbsp; She had been arrested on drug charges and was going to be sent to jail.&nbsp; That was the first time I knew she used drugs.&nbsp; It was actually kinda funny how it all happened.&nbsp; She was sharing a house in the country with a couple other girls (all strippers) and they all had friends who stored their drugs in the house because they lived with their parents.&nbsp; One day she and her friend were smoking pot at their kitchen table, then left to go somewhere.&nbsp; And apparently they didn't close the kitchen door tightly enough because it blew open.&nbsp; Cops touring the neighborhood saw the door standing open and investigated.&nbsp; They took one look through the&nbsp;open door,&nbsp;saw the bong and other stuff sitting on the kitchen table, and called narcotics.&nbsp; Who searched the house and found loads of drugs of all types.&nbsp; And the girls were all arrested and charged with possession and intent to distribute.<br /> <br /> Funny Girl was semohow able to hire a&nbsp;good lawyer, which her BF paid for (he also confessed that the drugs were his but&nbsp;they didn't care, the drugs&nbsp;were in her possession.)&nbsp; The lawyer suggested&nbsp;that she check in to rehab.&nbsp; Which she did. almost immediately.&nbsp; She wasn't allowed visitors.&nbsp; So I sent her a letter or card every day that she was there.&nbsp; And she discovered that she really liked it there (she still good frinds with her counselor.)&nbsp; When she&nbsp;got out she was a different person.&nbsp; The timing had&nbsp;been exactly right for her - she had been ready to make a major change in her life. <br /> <br /> She was ultimately sentenced&nbsp;to a 1 year suspended jail sentence and 3 years probation, including regular random drug&nbsp;tests - if she flunked one she went to jail&nbsp; (how's that for an incentive?)&nbsp; One of the other girls got a year in jail, the third also received a suspended sentence.&nbsp; Today Funny Girl considers that eposide to be the best thing that ever happened to her.&nbsp; <br /> <br /> And when the smoke cleared we both realized that we had become friends.<br /> &nbsp;</p>