Old School Girls Dinner

January 26, 2026

We were well past due for a get together, and right now we're a collective mess- me with my eye, Mo with gallstones, and Kelly to sick and hoarse to even attend (thankfully Fran is healthy)-but even reconnecting for a couple of hours sitting on the couch is good for the soul.

Nearly 30 Years

January 9,  2025

Tonight I met up with Mo, Kelly, and Francine for dinner and drinks. Mo pointed out that we have been friends for nearly 30 years now! Through many ups and downs--marriages, divorces, health scares, job changes, children, new houses, to name a few--we have borne witness to more than half of our lives together. We are all very different, and yet similar in many ways as well. I feel incredibly fortunate to have walked alongside these women for so many years together. Cheers to many, many more.

Girls' Night

March 22, 2022

Girls' Night

Tonight we were supposed to have dance class, but we have been trying to schedule a Girls' Night Out for a long time now, and our night schedules are making it nearly impossible! I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Francie teaches on Mondays and Thursdays. I've been a traveling fool on the weekends, and Tuesday night is our dance class night. Mo graciously offered up that we could skip dance this week and just go have a cocktail together. (Ha ha--Mo was not sad about missing class. She's a trooper, but it might not be her favorite thing I've ever dragged her to.) Anyway, we needed to catch up and give updates on what's happening in our lives, which is a lot right now, apparently. You just can do that in counts of eight on the dance floor!

Jesse's Girl

 June 28, 2012

My friend Francine and I bonded early on in our friendship over our guilty-pleasure love of 80s, and more specifically, Rick Springfield. Last year we took a road trip to the state fair to see him in concert, so when we found out he was going to be playing in Sacramento this summer, we knew another girls' night out was in the cards.  We got there early enough to get great seats, and of course we had our roses to give him (a signature part of his show--'playing' his guitar with the bouquets, showering the stage with the petals).  The picture below is him actually using the bouquet I handed him!  As always, he put on a fantastic show, and I just love that Francine is such a fearless super-fan that she makes sure she gets recognized in the audience at each of his concerts she goes to.  This was only the second one I've gone to with her (she's been to several), but I'm pretty sure there will be more in our future. 

Don't Talk To Strangers (Unless It's Rick Springfield!)

July 25, 2010
About a week and a half ago, I got a text from my good friend Francine. Fran and I met several years ago when we worked together at the high school. Although our love of high school English brought us together, it was our mutual love of 80s teen pop icon Rick Springfield that helped seal the deal. I can still remember when I offered her a ride somewhere after school one day. She jumped in and I started up the car. The stereo started blasting my Rick Springfield CD, much to my chagrin. It was one thing to rock out to Rick in my car by myself on the way to work, but it was a clandestine love affair, meant to be hidden from my friends with more sophisticated and worldly musical inclinations. And yet, Francine immediately brightened and screamed, "You like Rick, too!?" A true moment of bonding.
So, when Francine texted me and said her friend had a couple of free tickets to the Rick Springfield concert in Sacramento and wanted to know if I could join them, I was ecstatic. It's summer, I've got free time on my hands, and Fran was even willing to be our driver. The kids were staying with their dad since their aunt cousin were visiting, so the road trip was on!
We drove three hours chatting up a storm and listening to Rick in the background. I got to know a little bit about Kelly (Fran's friend and my new friend), and I realized what an amateur fan I am in comparison to those two, who have each seen him several times in concert and who have each met him in person. They were both pros at rushing the stage and getting up close and personal with him and had great stories to share.
At the concert, we had fantastic seats about eleven rows back, dead center. Although the security guards were quite serious about keeping the crowd of 40-something women away from the stage, Rick had other ideas. He must have been a nightmare for the security team when he came out into the audience not once but three different times, walking through the crowd, reaching out, shaking hands, talking to people here and there, and generally being a very engaging and interactive showman. Kelly, Francine, and I all got personal contact with him twice. It was very cool! We even followed the VIP ticket buyers to see the Meet and Greet that was taking place after the concert. We didn't have VIP passes, but that didn't stop us from getting to see him mingling with the VIPs and seeing him emerge from the dressing room trailer. I have never felt so much like a paparazzi-stalker, but it was really a lot of fun. I am already looking forward to the next concert I get to see with these girls!