I’ve been meaning to write this up for the other lady who uses my space so she knows exactly what and when to do when she comes in to entertain. So, say I have a one hour appointment at 11a; this is my day.
Wake up, usually naturally, sometime around 8:30 or nine. Make a cup of coffee, listen to the news, and throw some easy clothes on. The last bus I can catch leaves just after ten and gets me downtown by about 10:30. I practice my french on the ride and then enjoy a lovely walk through Freeway Park. When I arrive at my door, it’s been about half an hour since I left home and I’m only halfway ready.
I drop off my shoes by the door so I don’t track in the debris of the morning and then leave my satchel in a cupboard or the closet so it’s out of the way. I also immediately divest myself of all clothing, having worked up a bit of heat on the walk up the hill.
Now nude, I begin setup. The table comes out of the closet and gets unfolded, a layer of towels and padding goes on top, then the waterproof cover, then a pillow and a sheet and I make sure the various cushions and extras are easy to hand. The little crock pot gets plugged in and I make sure the coconut oil has time to melt and warm up. All this takes between ten and fifteen minutes.
After the table is set up I have fifteen minutes to shower, add makeup, and choose my wardrobe for the session (admittedly not very difficult, haha). If there are dishes to wash, laundry to start, mouthwash to refill, shelves to dust, vacuuming to do, linens to fold, shelves to install, stains to scrub, or any of the little things that constantly need doing, I fit them into the few spare minutes I have before you arrive.
Then you come in and I get to relax for an hour. You know what happens then 🙂
After you depart, the first thing I do is wash my hands and I’ll usually wash a dish or two while I’ve got soap in the sink. I check my phone for messages or updates, then strip the table, sanitize it and all points of contact including handles, the bottle of oil, and any cushions or pillows we used. After it all goes in the wash, I hop in the shower. Depending on whether I’m washing my hair or not that can take anywhere from two to twenty minutes. Then I strip the clean waterproof cover, towels, and other padding off the table, fold it back up, and put it away in the closet.
During all this I notice little things that need cleaning, for example toothpaste spots in the sink, wet dust in the shower, ‘sprinkles’ on the commode, handprints or oil rings on the kitchen counter, whatever little messes I’ve made, and clean them as I find them. It’s incredible the tiny things that accumulate quickly. Every day I notice water spots on the mirror and wipe them off, scum accumulating in the tub and I scrub it out, bits and pieces of leaves and I vacuum or pick them up, dust and I wipe it down, hand prints, book titles strewn about, blankets in the wrong place, and every day I try to remember to water my doomed and dying houseplant(s). For every appointment it takes about half an hour of cleaning up and preparation and for that first appointment of the day it takes another half our to get into town so I can even start to get ready.
At the end of the day I make sure laundry is folded or at least in the dryer, the table is clean and put away, fresh towels are where they need to be, the blinds are down for privacy, lights are off, everything is clean and dry and ready for the next day. I’m the last thing to get ready: clothes come back on, my daily needs go back into the satchel, and I do my last minute check that I have my bus pass, phone, keys, jacket, and anything else I need to take home.
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Mistress Matisse tweeted a while back about cleaning sex toys with a tooth brush. One of our local social coordinators started a ladies’ forum that makes a joke out of the mundane day-to-day of sex work. I see photos of my friend’s exotic vacations and expensive lingerie and it’s such a funny contrast to the daily reality of the work. On the one hand, we make a high wage and are rewarded for a glamorous image with more clients and even higher wages but on the other hand, before our clients arrive and after they leave, we live in a cloud of cleaning fumes and under an ever-present mound of laundry.
I had someone say with astonishment “you must make so much money” when they found out my average weekly schedule. I had to chuckle because that’s both correct and incorrect. Yes, a great deal of cash flows into my hands on a somewhat regular basis but no, I don’t get to keep as much as you might think. Most small business owners get tax incentives to grow and succeed but I do not. So not only am I spending up to two grand a month on rent, utilities, and supplies but I can’t deduct them from my taxable income. I also am responsible for two people’s health insurance, vacation package, retirement savings and other things usually provided by an employer. Add to that the normal bills and expenses of living in seattle and you find a much smaller net income than it might seem on the surface. I’m not doing poorly, but my gross income last year was within earshot of Seattle’s single earner average income which is around 70,000. Keeping in mind that Seattle’s average wage is inflated due to the high salaries of amazon, Microsoft, and other tech industries here. That’s before all those expenses I mentioned that are sometimes hidden in employment benefits for the average wage earner.
I know this isn’t really that interesting and it does kind of part the veil, but it’s been on my mind lately and I thought I’d share anyway. And this is me, a relatively stable, privileged, childless white woman with no debt. Imagine if I were in a position where I had children or parents to care for. Imagine how much harder this would be if I had student debt to service. What if I or someone I loved had a substance abuse issue? I see conversations on local discussion boards about high prices in seattle because, as the consumer, you don’t see the hidden costs or the delicate balance of work and leisure to avoid burnout, you only see a high (and rising) sticker price. I’m not complaining about the complaining and I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind, I just thought it would be interesting to share my routine.
I will admit that, when things are running smoothly, I get a lot of downtime. I make sure to leave a full hour in between sessions and once I’m settled completely into the new place I’ll probably revert to my habit of redditing for long chunks of time and playing silly games on my phone. That hour or so of cleaning and getting myself present and ready for you isn’t, when compared with the rewards of meeting you, any more than a minor inconvenience. While it is frustrating to find that even though I scrubbed out the tub just last week it’s got grime building up already and I try not to look at the sink because I don’t want to wash any more dishes, at the end of the day it’s really not that bad.
Though I will say one last thing and that is that yesterday I cleaned for almost two hours and then had to stand on the bus which was extremely slow because two of the express lanes were closed. I’m rarely reduced to tears of frustration but the constant jolting, muscle soreness, and overall tiredness grated on me until I finally got to sit down nearly 45 minutes after boarding the bus. *sigh*. I can’t wait for the new light rail stations.
Oh, and I heard through the grape vine that Old Cowboy is improving! What a fighter!