A 'We' Difference

My crew usually spends Friday night doing happy hour at a local dive/concert venue. The Boy and I were skipping it because a friend was having an Easter dinner party. I got a text from Monica asking if I was coming out despite the fact that she’s only gone twice in the last 6 months. I texted back that I couldn’t make but asked if she finally made it back out. Her response: “Yup. We’re here.”

I mentioned this to a single friend of mine and she rolled her eyes and made a face. Since none of my close friends are married or cohabitating yet, it’s weird to hear ‘we’ when you’re expecting ‘I.’ The single people aren’t eager to change that and most couples don’t want to fast track things. Most.

Monica has been dating her boyfriend Augustus for 11 months, not too long after The Boy and I got together. They are very happy and looking into cohabitation. He doesn’t live locally but reasonably close by. For a ‘long-distance’ couple, they don’t really see each other any less than The Boy and I do.

I think M & R got more serious faster than The Boy and I is because they desire that level of commitment more than we do. They’re the kind of couple that enjoys talking every night, spending vacations glued together, and occasionally inducing mild nausea with their cuteness.

I think the disconnect comes from the fact that Monica and Augustus are the first in our group of friends to get there. Despite doing most of our socializing together, I don’t assume the ‘we’ is implied for the couple I’m in. This is true of another couple The Boy and I usually socialize with.

It was also weird to get ‘we’ when you weren’t asking about the couple but I think it’s only a matter of time until it happens again. People are starting to pair off more and we’re all getting older. I think M & R are the canary in the coal mine. I have no idea when I’ll stop being a ‘me’ and become a ‘we’ but I’m sure it’s already started. I just can’t see it because I’m already in the mine with the canary.

Mating Display

There’s an episode in Season 1 of How I Met Your Mother where an engagement inspires the couple to ‘act more grown-up.’ They have a wine and cheese party with other engaged or married couples. Unfortunately they’re bored out of their minds.

With so many of my friends pairing off and The Boy factoring heavily into my social calendar, I’m starting to understand how that happens. You invite one you invite the other and there appear to be times when everyone in your circle is part of a couple.

I’d be curious to throw one of these little shindigs where it’s just a handful of couples but we do something other than consume wine and cheese. It would be a nerd couples night and we’d either MST3K a bad movie or play board games. There’d be wine and beer but we wouldn’t discuss flavor so much as imbibe whilst eating.

I like this idea immensely but I currently have no place to pull it off. My place doesn’t work and The Boy lives in an adult frat house. It’s gotten better with the new roommate but it will never be properly presentable with 5 guys living there. I’ll put this on the backburner and see if it stews into something good. At the going rate another one of my friends may have paired off by then.

Music: Bittersweet Life by My Favorite Highway