Living Outside the Stacks

Do you remember that episode of “King of Queens” when Carrie and Doug lose Deacon and Kelly to another couple who has kids so they spend the entire episode trying to find a replacement couple?  Well, Tony and I have been trying to find that couple for years now. Ok, maybe I haven’t been actively participating in the search but Tony has done his fair share of couple scouting.  And he finally hit the jackpot a couple of nights ago…

There are these two couples from his job that we’ve been trying to get together with for a couple of months now but due to scheduling conflicts, someone always had to cancel.  We kept meeting individually at different events ~ their weddings and such but never at a time when we could all sit down and talk. Finally, the date was set for Friday, 19 November and no backing out.  Mostly because this was a going away dinner for one of the couples.  I know, right?  We finally to get together and it’s to say “Good bye.”

Anyway, I was a little nervous.  Have I told y’all how incredibly panic stricken I get in social situations?  It’s really bad.  I know, I teach classes and work as a librarian, you’d think I’d have the social skills of Ellen Degeneres, nope…  I’m incredibly shy.  So we arrived at the couple’s house and immediately the conversation starts flowing.  I’m talking to the wife and we’re laughing, my crutch (aka Tony) is off with her husband talking about “man stuff.”  Then the  other couple arrived and the conversation continued to flow…  Throughout dinner, we were just laughing and talking over each other, etc., it was like we were old friends.

Tony and I had to leave a little early due to a family emergency and as I was leaving I remarked that we always have to say bye at the most inopportune times…  Here we’d struck “couple gold” not once but twice and the evening had to end much too soon with the chances of us being able to duplicate it very slim.

As we drove home, I told Tony there was no way we were going to wait for the other couple to get ready to move before we invited them over for dinner.  I want us to have couple friends that we both enjoy hanging out with.  As important as it is for people to have individual friends (a BFF or what have you), I think it’s equally important for couples to have “couple friends.”

Couple friends are those friends you have who are either married or in a committed relationship that both you and your spouse or significant other enjoy being around.  They offer laughs, shared experiences and support.

Do you and your spouse have “couple friends”?  How’d you meet?

I have the research skills of a librarian, the preservation skills of an archivist, the organizational skills of a mother and the domestic skills of a Stepford wife. I have the research skills of a librarian, the preservation skills of an archivist, the organizational skills of a mother and the domestic skills of a Stepford wife. Read more from this author