S. and I sat in our usual post dinner spots, one of us in our bed and the other in the kitchen chair, the room still smelling of boiled chicken and my mother’s mashed potatoes. As our stomachs began to settle into a comfortable hazy nothingness, the sounds of an electric guitar drifted across the night.

“That reminds me,” S. said, “Mineirão is having a concert tonight.”

Mineirão is the football (soccer) stadium a little over a mile away. When Ed Sheeran came to town, our neighborhood lost power three nights in a row. Fireworks are common after Cruzeiro home games and the soundtrack determined by the nearby restaurant is standard in our life, but we had never heard a concert before.

I recognized song after song. “Bad to the Bone” followed “Sweet Child of Mine” and “Back in Black”, and after some minor research (and S.’s comment that people were lined up along sidewalks wearing shirts with wings) we found out Aerosmith was in town.

As the opening CDs came to a halt, “Come Together” drifted through our studio apartment, followed shortly by “Dude” and another line of hits I recognized. Our world was at peace as we sat in our small home and listened to the free show of one of the world’s most famous rock bands.

It’s going on midnight and I “don’t wanna close my eyes, don’t wanna fall asleep” because “I don’t wanna miss a thing”.

Sometimes we are blessed with these small gifts of extremely talented musicians playing their hits live without ever having to change out of our pajamas and although I often dream of a home tucked away in the country, I am so thankful for nights like tonight where the sounds of home (especially my rock loving cousins) serenade me as I wind down.

“Dream on” loved ones, “dream on”.

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Also…I’m listening to the show as I type…Never ever did I dream of going to an Aerosmith concert, but gente…if you have the chance…GO. THEY ARE AMAZING. They are extremely talented musicians, I’m blown away.