Girlfriends

I was stoked when I heard Pat Benatar and Steve Miller were going to be on tour together and coming to the bay area for a great summer show at the Shoreline Amphitheater. I was, and still am, a huge fan of both and had never seen either one in concert before. My husband (boyfriend at the time), a friend of his, and I all got lawn seats for the September show.

Though both guys "liked" Pat Benatar, neither of them were actually fans. I, being a little rocker chick who grew up with Pat Benatar ruling the MTV airwaves, was a total fan. I could not wait to FINALLY see her in concert. There was only one thing that had be kind of bummed though, I was going without one girlfriend to enjoy it with. I shrugged it off, and figured it would still be fun.

Well the night of the concert came and Pat hit the stage. I was instantly on my feet singing and dancing. Of course my boyfriend and his friend, remained sitting. There I stood dancing and singing alone. The guys just kind of hung out, sometimes listening and applauding, other times just chatting. Basically just waiting for Steve Miller to come on.

Being pumped with girl power, I just kept dancing and singing. Sometimes even making my way to the front of the lawn area where we were. As I would make my way down, all I saw were groups of girls singing and laughing together, true bonding time. I felt a little homesick for my own girlfriends.

At one point, I ended up next to a couple of girls who had kind of strayed from the larger group of girls that they were with, and we shared a few laughs. They made there way back to their group, and I kept dancing there, alone. Towards the end of the set, Pat started singing Invincible. There I was, singing loud with my lone fist in the air, surrounded by groups of girlfriends singing it together.

The two girls I had exchanged laughs with earlier saw me. "Where's your friends?" One of them leaned over and asked. "I'm here with my boyfriend and his friend" I answered, motioning to the two guys sitting a little farther up the lawn. "What?" she yelled, grabbing my arm. "No girlfirends!" She led me over to where the rest of her group of friends were singing. "She's here with boys!" she told them. I spent the rest of Pat Benatar's set, singing and hanging out with a group of girls I'd never met before.

Even though once the set was over I headed back over to my boyfriend, and in spite of the fact I never even got the name of one of those girls, for the last half hour of that Pat Benatar concert, they became my closest girlfriends.