Unfocused

It started that morning. I was completely unfocused. I knew he was in town already. And I was going to go see him that night. But, earlier in the day, Sara and I had plans. We were meeting at the park to walk and talk. Surely that would take my mind off the anticipation. It didn't. Because next to the walking path is the most upscale hotel in Rabat. I was sure he was there. So all hot and sweaty, dressed in our workout gear and smelling ripe, we decided to go over to the hotel and stalk him. Lenny Kravitz.

The plan was to dress "rocker cool" that night for the concert. Which of course is a totally uncool thing to do. Sara was running late and not completely ready when she and her husband, Christopher, arrived at my house. She is a professional dancer and is unfazed by quick changes and chaos. She put on her make-up in Rabat traffic on the way there, without impaling her eye with the make up wand. And that kind of focus is rocker cool. As is casually strolling in late and standing in the free zone in the back where you don't need a ticket . Unless that’s just called lame.

Late himself, Lenny finally strutted out on stage;I could kinda see him from the little window next to people's heads crooking my head to the left and standing on tip toes. It became clear my best chance to see him was to watch the big screen instead. And take pictures of it. And while they started out of of focus...

...they remained completely out of focus.

So I have a myriad of out of focus pictures. It was extremely frustrating. Why can't he just stand still for a second? Okay, five seconds.

I went in to try to capture one more close up shot of Lenny. Before I decided to just take a few pictures of us at the concert. Maybe that would work better.

But I forgot to zoom back out. So I got this lovely photo of Sara and I. But you can clearly see what a fantastic job she did on her eye makeup in the car on the way there in this myopic shot.

Then I took this group shot with our husbands. But, and even though you can barely see Craig's face you can see he looks like he's about to cry. (Are You Gonna Go My Way does do that to him sometimes.) So, I thought I'd try again.

And missed getting the guys in the shot entirely.

Then, 2/3 of the way through the concert, people started to leave. Honestly, I think a lot of Moroccans didn't even know who Lenny Kravitz was in the first place. They probably thought it was the night Mariah Carey performed. She does have a son named Moroccan after all. So, Sara and I pounced on two openings right up on the fence that separates the people who paid for tickets up front from those cheap bastards who didn't. This left a gap between us and our husbands that was instantaneously absorbed by two Moroccan men who swooped in and stood directly behind us. So closely behind that I could feel the guys heartbeat on my back. And I pushed back into him before his other bits were on other parts. When that didn't work, he placed both his hands firmly on my thighs and I turned around and firmly told him to get his hands off of me. I didn't know Craig was watching and pulling him off of me until later. Or that Sara and I had been targeted like so many other women have been at the Mawazine festival. It’s an issue that just isn't focused on.

They left us alone, until the encore. When Lenny played a 20 minute rendition of Let Love Rule, left the stage and started walking through the crowd. Everyone went crazy and pushed in to try to get a glimpse and a picture of Lenny. He looked like he was headed right for us and the guys behind us were pressing and thrusting their bodies on us again. Now they knew they were being watched and said pardon, excusing themselves of what they knew all along to be improper behavior. To American women anyway. Lenny headed back to the stage and the two men disappeared into the crowd as it dispersed.

Oh I think I forgot to mention that near the end of the evening Lenny actually took off his sunglasses. And maybe you don't know that Lenny seems to wear sunglasses all the time. And even though he was blurry, we decided there's good reason for that. Have you seen Lenny without glasses on before? Let's just say his eyes are not his best feature. Cause sometimes when you see things in focus, you discover the fantasy is actually better than the reality.