The couples blind date!

As couples we tend to find other couple friends that we gravitate toward. We find commonalities, things that we're all interested in, we tend each others kids, and basically share our lives. However, when we find ourselves moving to a new city or a new area of town, we loose our couple friends or don't have enough to time to travel all the way across town to get together, so what do we do? We go on what I like to call a couples blind date. I just had one of those! I call it a blind date because most likely only one of you know one of the people in that couple you're about to hang out with. In my case, today, it was my husband who made our plans and Erik's friends wife and I were the blind ones on this couples date. We had never met and call me crazy, but I often get nervous for these "couples blind dates." I like to be the one who knows someone and my husband be the blind one. But, I find it empowering when I come out of my little shell and get to know people. After all, you can NEVER have too many friends. After the couples date, something else happens. Just like when you're dating and seeking a spouse, you do a replay of the hangout/date. What did they think of me? Did I talk too much? Was I too opinionated? Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Yep, we question ourselves and begin to dissect the hangout. I actually have to laugh at this because this sort of emotion was new to my husband and I when we moved to a new city. We found ourselves on a couples blind date, me being the blind one once again and after the hangout, Erik and I drove home wondering what Erik's friend and his fiance thought about us as a couple and us as a group of four friends. In this particular relationship, we have some differences, not bad differences, just things that made us different from each other, so we worried that maybe those differences became too apparent at dinner. So afterward, Erik spent a few minutes texting his friend and finally his friend texted something that made us both laugh. He said, stop dissecting our date, It was great! It was true! We were pulling the whole night apart and looking at it under a microscope! And I think we all do that when we hang out with new couples or friends. So is that okay? I think it is. I think it's important that we be cautious when we start hanging out with new friends. It allows us to get a feel for what may or may not be an appropriate topic for conversation, which will enable us to steer clear of any conversations that they may take offense to and also, if we are cautious, we won't go home asking ourselves the previously stated agitating questions. So next time you're on a couples blind date, remember, I've been there too, you're not alone and don't dissect the event to the point of madness when you're finished! Just revisit the night enough to evaluate yourselves, making sure you're being aware of what is coming out of your mouths in effort to avoid any offensive behavior and remember to just have fun and be yourself!