DRAG (continued)

And so it began....the evolution of mild-mannered high strung neurotic over-achiever into a high-camp, extraordinarily extroverted drag monster that guzzled liquor, popped pills and never paid for a drink. (Sometimes the drinks were comped - sometimes, I just stole them!)

My friend Maya devised the name BoBo on a beach in Santa Cruz the first time I went to the Bay Area and I metamorphosed into the this character that was prone to wear day-glow plastic flowers, ornate hoop skirts and handmade platforms to art openings, concerts, bars (you name it!)

After college, I moved to New York and was a club kid for all of seven months. It was fun (what I can remember) -- but it was also extraordinarily intense, and ultimately, scary.

In the space of a year, I'd traveled from the heights of club glamour, working at 3 clubs four nights a week, to being completely discontent with my life and where I was going with it.

I moved back to St. Louis after spending a few months on the farm drying out. I focused my energies on getting a job and getting a life that I wasn't embarrassed to admit was mine.

I still enjoy house music, I still go out, I occasionally dress up (maybe twice a year,) but the chaotic frenzy of that time, the madness of a new outfit every night, the thrill of being on the guest list (or not being on the list and still being ushered in).....those days are long gone.

A part of me wishes I could revisit those days....but mostly I'm grateful I survived them.