Confessions of a Bride, Part III

At one point, I started wondering what would happen with my friends. How do I tell my fellow, career-oriented, independent, traveling girlfriends that I truly desire to "settle down"?

Other friends that have married in the past have dropped of the face of the planet. With no explanation. Then, when a chance rendezvous occurs, the only talk is about coupons and laundry. There also seemed to be an air of a slower, more quiet life.

I didn't want to become this person. I was, however, aware that there must be something going on with marriage that required significantly more time than singleness. Time that was already hard to come by.

Regardless, I didn't want to loose my long time friends or for them to drop me because our lives grew apart. I still don't know the answer to this yet. I do know I have several good friends. I also know that simply work, money, schedules, home, family, etc keep a couple in constant communication and take more time.

On one hand, this is somewhat overly dramatic since several sets of married friends do stay in touch and open their lives to others. At the same time, as a couple, we will have the same amount of time, but twice the social contacts and opportunities. You do the math.