Dance Fever and Other Cherishable Items

When I was in my teens and early 20s I was proud to be friends with guys. In fact, I had a plethora of male friends and only a handful of ladies I called bosom buddies.

I thought, at my tender age, that men were easier to be friends with. I believed that men refrained from cattiness and gossip. I believed men never got jealous. I thought men were the perfect friends to have, because - well, they were men.

I held this belief for quite some time until I began to realize a few things.

A fair share of men ARE catty and love to gossip. It's not followed by shrill giggling, so it often goes undetected. Men do get jealous. Crazy jealous. Men are perfectly good friends, but what I realized is there is a certain amount of detachment with fellows. They don't really dig in with you. The ones that do listen and care and wipe away your broken-hearted tears are usually either gay or have been secretly in love with you for ages.

This is why I went and got me some girlfriends.

And didn't I win the lottery?!

I have several different groupings of girlfriends and I'm here to tell you - the more the better.

Just this weekend, many of my girlfriends were in town for the holidays. They used to all be in town all the time, but have casually relocated to other towns from coast to coast. This is regrettable, and yet does not diminish how I adore speaking to or hanging out with them.

These particular girlfriends pretty much run the spectrum. In fact, if you threw us in the Big Brother house, you'd expect hijinx to ensue. However, for all our differences, we have two loves that know no bounds.

We love wine.

And we love to dance.

In case, you couldn't tell from all my 80s movie references, I ain't no Spring chicken. I am, in fact, well into my 30s. And so are my girls.

If we were in our 20s I suppose we'd rally around wine coolers instead of a nice pinot noir, but the love of dancing is timeless. At least for us.

So we gathered at one of the girls' houses, drank some wine, laughed til we cried and then shuffled around some furniture and made us a dance floor.

And didn't we cut a fuckin' rug.

I'm not sure what kind of plans you've got for 2009, but if you're a woman and you don't have a group of girlfriends - well, then get up off your keister and get some. I'm particularly fond of the kind that drink micro brews and red wine, make me laugh til I tinkle, and (forgive this slightly lame quote) dance like nobody's watching.

But hey - whatever works for you. Just get you some girls who got your back, and you'll never, never regret it.