Ladies night

Photo taken last night at Rudy's Redeye Grill in White Bear Lake, MN. Apps, dinner, and Rudy-tinis with one of my favorite gals.

The importance of girlfriends is often overlooked. From a young age girls start ditching their besties for their boyfriends. And let me tell you, you will regret this. I know this, because I too was a girl who ditched my pals to spend every waking minute of free time with a guy. Blah. To ruin the ending of my story, I lost all my friends.

Now, its not to say that you shouldn't love your man and want to hang out with him. But you have to aware of the consequences tied to too much time with your man...

1) He may or may not be around forever. Chances are if you have a good group of girlfriends, they will be by your side through thick and thin, including when that prince turns out to be a big fat frog. If you don't make time for the girls, they may stop including you and before you know it, you are building a friend base from scratch. Maybe not so hard when you're young, but quality friendships take time once you're into your 20's. 

2) You will start to find your guy less appealing. There is nothing that can make or break a relationship quicker than spending all your time with one person...simply for the fact that you get to know the ins and outs of them and at times these can be bad. In my experience the following things can emerge once you and your guy have reached a certain state of comfort with each other: burping, farting, ragged or dirty clothes, SWEATSHORTS, socks on the floor, unequal chore share (dishes, laundry, garbage), and general uncleanliness or disregard for ones appearance. Your man might not want to get done up and take you out on the town once he's got you locked in. Rather than get upset, use this as an opportunity for you to keep on top of your friendships and head out with your ladies! 

3) You will miss them when they are gone. Plain and simple, you will long for the late night girl talk over wine, the all day shopping excursions, and fun lunch dates at tasty cafes. Since college, I have had numerous best friends move out of the state, to different continents, and cities that take over an hour to drive to. Even though our distance is unrelated to our men, its hard to keep in touch. But try to find time to make them a priority; you won't regret it and likewise, each time you're together it will be as though no time has passed. That is the indicative of  lifelong friends. 

Hold onto them tightly, they are hard to come by.

J.