Double the pleasure

It is not easy to keep up with friends, especially for someone like me who does not have one big circle of friends, but rather individual friends from different sectors of my life. To keep in touch requires much diligence. Thank goodness for email b/c I am not good a the phone call thing. But my friends are important to me and I do try to maintain as much contact as I can. Then comes the family obligations. My family lives upstate and out-of-state. To see them requires some travel time. I don't mind, but again, it's not easy to get there as often as I would like, try as I might.

Now, I am married and things have become even more difficult. Between the newly-extended family obligations (dinners, birthdays, holidays) to the "double-dates" with friends and the solo girls'/boys' nights out, not to mention the personal errands and exercise and work, the plans are just taking over our life, and, more importantly, our weekends.

I am part of the problem, I know. I have made plans for us for the first weekend in July already. And maybe I am just selfish. Maybe I just want to do what I want, with my friends and family, and be free to get annoyed when we have something to do with his friends and family. Because I'm actually excited about the July plan. It involves my sister, after all. I think that I should be given a "GET OUT OF PLANS FREE" card... make that 10 of those cards... to use as I'd like throughout the year. I'll give him 5. Because as much as I want to do what I want when I want and also want him to do what I want. Selfish. Isn't it natural, though, to feel this way? I mean, I have known my friends and family longer...