cereal:

I'm always perplexed by couples who go to parties, and then never leave each other's side

Heh. Diplomatic Corps training - I get really uncomfortable if the DH and I are in the same group at a party. We've been trained for so many years to split up and socialize with different groups (whether hosts or guests) that it's rare we see each other until the end of a party.

I'm a heathen who thinks adults with kids should occasionally do adult things without the kids.

That can be tricky time-wise. Leif is starting to wake up so early (5:30 AM) this morning. That I'm not able to just get in exercise. I'm going to have to start going to bed earlier so I can get enough sleep, but that will leave very little time after putting the kids to bed.

I am quite shy, and prone to cling to my spouse when at a party. Not because I don't like other people, but because they scare me.

Sadly, in my busy life, it is also likely that "at a party" is the only time I have had to talk to my spouse in days, that is, talk on a level deeper than, "Remember, the baby has a doctor appointment on Tuesday, and I'll be home early because the nanny has to go to the DMV, and..." Similarly, in this busy (and poor) life, it's really hard to find time to go out without my child. It's something we're working on, but for us right now it's work.

I am quite shy, and prone to cling to my spouse when at a party. Not because I don't like other people, but because they scare me.

If I were part of a couple, I could see myself doing this at parties where I didn't know anyone else. Parties where I knew people, OTOH, would be a different story altogether.

I am quite shy, and prone to cling to my spouse when at a party. Not because I don't like other people, but because they scare me.

If I were part of a couple, I could see myself doing this at parties where I didn't know anyone else. Parties where I knew people, OTOH, would be a different story altogether.

Yup. I'll stick by Z if I don't know a lot of people or if I don't feel quite comfortable. At parties with our friends, all bets are off - though we do make a point of checking in with each other as the night progresses.

One of the signs that the WBB was the one for me was that hanging out with him was more fun than hanging out without him 90% of the time. I still have plenty of fun on my own, but having him be home when I am there does not feel like an imposition or a distraction*, which it would with, oh, anyone else on Earth.

Yup.

I'm always perplexed by couples who go to parties, and then never leave each other's side (or lap) all night. I don't get it -- you're going home together! You're going back to the same place -- why can't you mingle freely?

Because we enjoy each other's company more than we'd enjoy mingling. There's really not much more to it than that.

Because we enjoy each other's company more than we'd enjoy mingling.

But then why even go to the party? (I'm not trying to be obnoxious; I'm just curious.)

Because there are likely to be drinks and music and other friends there. Staying close to the SO doesn't have to mean ignoring everyone else.

I have an etiquette question that has nothing to do with mingling at parties.

My upstairs neighbors, who are my landlord and his family, hang their laundry off their back balcony. Which means that when something falls off the clothesline, it lands on my balcony. They are not in the habit of coming down to the backyard and then climbing up on my balcony to check for stuff (thankfully).

The problem is that, other than the occasional clothespin, what rains down onto my balcony are the 18yo daughter's thong underwear.

Do I:
a) Set them somewhere in the stairwell that someone from the family will see, and collect them?
b) Give them to her father when he comes by to check on us?
c) Go knock on their door and explain in German/Greek/English while holding her undies?
d) Throw them into the backyard like they fell there?
e) Attempt to slingshot them back up to their balcony?

I'd throw them into the backyard.

t edit Everything I'm posting today is just making me look like the biggest misanthrope/avoider-of-human-interaction EVAR.