There are some things you do only because someone is a close friend.  The people who know where the bodies are buried. The people that have you doing things so out of character that other people ask if you lost a bet.
Ashby is one of those friends.  We were college roommates. She’s one of the smartest people I know.  She’s an attorney, and if I ever need one, I hope to be able to hire her.  She’s not afraid to tell you what you need to hear. While I implicitly trust her advice on nude hose, wearing purple, flirting, and the appropriate number of rings to wear at any given time, I question the girl’s taste in music.  While I’m more of a fan of U2 and any kind of Rock, Ashby tends to favor the Pop Princesses.  Which is how I found myself on the Atlanta MARTA last September, heading to a Britney Spears concert.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did get myself into this predicament.  It was I, after all, who sent the email to Ashby telling her that Britney was coming to town.  Her husband had no interest in going to the show, so we turned it into a Girls Weekend.  She came to visit.
We dressed cute. We updated Facebook to say we were heading to the show. Ashby’s friends told her to have fun. Mine asked how on earth this had happened. Ashby asked me why her friends weren’t surprised she was going, but mine wanted to know what dirt Ashby had on me.
We joined the throngs of women our age, tweens, and gay men attending the show.  We saw Kim from the Real Housewives of Atlanta (and her entourage, all wearing Bedazzled T-shirts reading “Team Kim”).  And we saw the Circus. I refuse to call this a concert.   I think Britney actually sang (live) only one song.
So yes, it is no secret here that I am not a big Britney fan.  Despite that, I had an unexpectedly good time.  Ashby has a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor and can make me laugh in ways few people can. She’s already seen me at my best and worst- it is hard to hide much of anything in a dorm room, after all, so there’s no pretense, no need to impress the other person.
Ashby and I are on the same wavelength politically, so there are things I can talk about with her that I don’t discuss with other people.   We did have one massive argument back in college, but thankfully we grew up and got over that.  Our friendship is stronger for it, I think, because we learned something about the people we want to count amongst our closest circle, and those we are content to keep in touch with periodically.
So now, Ashby’s asked me to consider another thing I wouldn’t normally- a Lady Ga Ga show.  We’ll see.
By the way, the rest of the weekend was a lot of fun- the quest for the perfect jeans, and martinis and tapas and dueling pianos. But those are stories for another posting.