Checking in.
I've been playing for 5 years this month, though I didn't have my own instrument for the first year and I've only been in lessons a year and a half. I started because my preacher at church gave a call for bass and guitar. Though I had played guitar as a teenager, I was never good at it, yet when I'd played double bass in a teaching methods course while persuing my music education degree, I loved it. So, I took the bass, and the rest is personal musical history.
I was influenced by bass before I had any idea I'd be a bassist. My first favorite band was Mr. Mister who finally got recognition with the bass-centric "Broken Wings." I also really liked Tony Franklin from that time, and he's my direct inspiration to want to play fretless. When I met him over a year ago, I was able to tell him that he had been my bass hero before I ever knew I had a bass hero.
Can't comment on the groupies since I play in church. If there's supposed to be any fervor going on, it is of the religious sort and not the sexual kind.
I did sit in with a friend's blues band back in November. th ey had been without a bass player for a long time, and I really enjoyed playing with them. They were so nice and complimentary saying I must really work hard at it. I know I could work a whole lot harger, but it's nice to be respected for being serious about music.
In fact, I had a conversation with Trip Wamsley once since he lives in the general area. We were talking shop about bass after I introduced myself and explained that I was currently taking lessons from one of his former students. As our conversation went on, he stopped me and said, "You're serious" in that impressed way, and I took that as a great compliment.
I did have a laugh not that long about at my own expense, though, because the stereotype is that if there's a female musician in a band who is not the singer, she will more often than not be the bassist. I realized I was an embodiment of a cliche.
Lastly for this post, I play other instruments and still do. I get enjoyment out of all the different aspects of music that I make, such as playing percussion or oboe, or singing. It's all good, and only now in my older age (mid-30s) and whiel bass playing am I really seeing all the different skills solidifying into a skill set that makes me feel like a confident and capable musician.
EDIT:
By the way, I play 34" scale. I used to think a bass was so big, but now I think it's normal. It's guitars that I find to be small and awkward. At present, I'm not interested in playing longer scale or more than 4 strings.
Funny thing is that she's only average height and weight, just strong. 
