Married Friends

The world has been set right again. Fall came back and winter ran away! Sunshine and 65+ degrees outside is what I'm talking about! Love it! But I am still anxious for the holidays to come. I might have to start decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over.

So remember this beauty?

Well this weekend I performed some intense surgery on the poor fellow. I think he came out looking much better than when he went in. Pretty hard to look any worse actually. I am still not totally in love with it, but it could look cute hanging on the wall or the door. 

Doug and I were discussing the differences between being married and being single and how it relates to making couple friends. Basically when you are married, you still have to date, only this time you have to date another couple. Becoming friends with another couple is a delicate matter.

First, you have to get the other couple's number. We all know how hard and potentially awkward it can be to ask attractive, smart, funny people for their number. It's intimidating! You don't want to ask after the first time you talk. That would totally freak them out. But you don't want to wait too long or else you will miss your chance. Do you look up their number in the directory and come up with an excuse to text them? Do you wait for them to ask for your number? Should you add them on Facebook and start to just to casually become online friends? What to do?!

Ok whew, getting their number was tough. The next part though... even tougher! Now you want to start developing that relationship further than just acknowledging each other on campus. I mean you don't want to seem totally over anxious and desperate for friends by texting them too soon. But if you don't text or call them, maybe they think you don't want to be their friend. Perhaps a safe thing to do would be to casually invite them to a group get-together so the pressure is lower. Or just a casual bite to eat. Low-key. Nothing fancy. Sound familiar at all? 

Time to really get down to business. The first official "date." Going to dinner, playing games, or going bowling. One-on-one... Or i guess in this case two-on-two... Time to really get to know them. How did they meet? How long did they date? What are they up to in their lives? Making the connection. So the date went well. Everybody had fun. No awkward silences or pauses in conversation. Perfect. This friendship is going to work. We thank them for coming etc etc. Get home and agree that we should do that again. So we move on to the PDT-the post date text. You know this one. It sets up for a second date and lets the couple know you are really interested. So we send the "Thanks so much for coming! We had a really good time and we should do it again sometime :)"  to move the relationship along. 

See how much work this is? It is seriously like dating all over.  But its worth it. I love all the new friends I have met since being married. The similarities between dating and making friends was too funny not to share. Friends are so wonderful and necessary and without them where would we be in life?