Live Together or Get Married?

I will start with a disclaimer to say that many of my friends have chosen to live together before marriage and I in no way mean to offend them or judge their decision, this is just a blog about my own personal beliefs for myself.

So it seems our generation is faced at some point in a relationship with the question of whether or not to move in together or to get married? They may not view the question as this but it really is what it comes down. My living together you get to "test drive" marriage without the commitment. It seems that over the last few days I have learned that a good percentage of my co-workers live with their significant other. It got me thinking about why they made that decision. For me, I wouldn't even consider it unless I was engaged and close to getting married and even then I don't know if I would do it. To me they are sitting up house and doing everything that married couples do without the total commitment to each other. It is no wonder that so many of these relationships fail because by just living together there is an "out" clause. I guess some would argue that divorce is the "out" clause of marriage but if you really want to be married and really believe in the vows of better or for worse and sickness and in health then you don't include an "out" clause. I don't understand why so many people chose to live together. I can already hear the arguments...it is cheaper, we are together all the time anyway, we are committed...well if all is that is true, why are you scared of marriage? I think so many marriages fail is because we have forgotten what the intent of marriage is and we have forgotten to take it so seriously. We fall in love but don't bother to answer questions like: Are we compatible? Do we both agree on how to handle money? Do we share common religious beliefs? Do we both want kids and if so, how many? Do we prefer to live in the city? Do we want to live near family? Will both people be at home (aka not travel) once we have kids? There are so many questions like this that most couples don't think about but if they took the time to answer these questions (and many more like these) honestly and seriously then maybe we would start to get more marriages right and we as a society wouldn't feel like we had to "test it out".

Vent - Rude Wait Staff?

Multiple people including myself have encountered an interesting phenomenon at restaurants lately. It seems that the waiter/waitress feels like it is in their job description to join in and interrupt your conversation while they wait on you. It is one thing to ask if I want more tea but for the wait staff to enter my conversation and overstay their welcome by participating in my table mates and my conversation. What is going on? Can't a waiter/waitress just take my order, check on me, bring my food and give me the check? I don't need their advice, I don't need their friendship...I just need my food! So this is my vent for the day.