In Defense of Girls' Night

Girls' Night, Ladies' Night... whatever you want call it, Girls' Night is a fun concept that my adorable husband just cannot grasp. I have plans tonight to go to a Girls' Night with my former co-workers and earlier, on the phone with Luke, he referred to it as Girrrls' Night (with a long "rrrr" sound and in the same tone you'd mention toenail fungus). His exact phrase was "since it's Girrrls' Night, I can't stop in. Huh?" No honey, cause you're not a girl.

I held a girl's night for the same crowd at my house a few months back and we had to turn it into a girls' and guys' night because he was so saddened that no guys would be coming over to keep him company. It was still a lot of fun but somehow I think the night would have been different of the guys stayed home. For instance, I'm sure I wouldn't have been walking back to the house with Megan and Angie at two in the morning in my socks, and we wouldn't have been covered up to our knees in mud. Long story involving a Jeep. And testosterone.

Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with the guys, but there's just some overeating and complaining that can't be accomplished when the men are present. I need the girls' nights to remind me that I am a girl. I spend so much time with men that I need this time set aside to eat junk and talk about whatever comes to mind and hang out in a room where everyone has showered recently and no one farts and the only time boobs are mentioned it's when we're complaining about our bras.

My family started the tradition, several years ago, of a Girls' Night Out every year on the day after Christmas. It eventually turned into Girls' Morning In and now it's even harder to keep my persistent guy out of the group. He can't understand why he can't hang out when he knows and likes most of the people in the group, too. One year he even got the flu just so he could stay home and not go away when the girls arrived. (The nerve!)

I think I might know the reason for this Girls' Night aversion. The two of us have been together for 14 years now and we've sort of become one person. We do everything together, good and bad. Going somewhere without Luke is like going without my arm. My sometimes irritating, often grumpy arm. He's so used to being with me all the time that Girls' Night seems like a personal attack on him. I'm so used to having him with me that I get to feeling antsy after being without him for too long. I guess that's sweet... or maybe co-dependant, I'm not sure which.

So honey, I love you, but I need my girl time. I'm going to Girls' Night!