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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that friends don't always come in pairs. Don't

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Speaker 1: assume that if you are getting together with friends, you

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Speaker 1: have to have all couples, or that you need to

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Speaker 1: gather separately with friends who are unattached. You can get

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Speaker 1: together with solo friends and couple friends at the same time.

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Speaker 1: On a recent episode of my other podcast, Best of

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Speaker 1: Both Worlds, Sarah Hartunger and I tackled a question from

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Speaker 1: a listener whose couple friends were getting a divorce. She

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Speaker 1: was wondering how to maintain a relationship with them. It

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Speaker 1: can be hard if you and your partner have both

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Speaker 1: been used to getting together with another couple and then

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Speaker 1: the other couple splits up. Obviously, the four of you

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Speaker 1: won't be going on double dates anymore, but what are

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Speaker 1: your options for staying in touch? The question got me

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Speaker 1: thinking about how friends don't always come in pairs. Whether

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Speaker 1: you are partnered or single, you probably have some friends

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Speaker 1: who are single and some who are partnered. Some of

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Speaker 1: your friend's partners may be people you're just not that

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Speaker 1: close to or don't share much in common with, or

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Speaker 1: just have schedules or interests that make it unlikely you

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Speaker 1: will socialize. But this doesn't have to be a problem.

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Speaker 1: For a great many activities, you can just invite a mix.

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Speaker 1: You could go to a concert, for instance, with your

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Speaker 1: husband and your childhood best friend and your husband's good

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Speaker 1: friend from work, along with your neighbor who just moved

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Speaker 1: into town. If you are single in hosting a dinner party,

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Speaker 1: you could invite your three college roommates and their partners.

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Speaker 1: But maybe one of the partners is out of town,

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Speaker 1: so you end up with yourself, your three college roommates,

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Speaker 1: and two of their spouses. The combinations are endless. The

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Speaker 1: main point is to not assume that the configurations of

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Speaker 1: everybody you get together with need to be the same. Now, obviously,

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Speaker 1: some activities like bridge or tennis or ballroom dancing require

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Speaker 1: even numbers, but most activities don't, And even if you

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Speaker 1: do need an even number, that doesn't mean everybody needs

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Speaker 1: to come as a pair. Two plus two plus two

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Speaker 1: equals six, but so does two plus one plus one

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Speaker 1: plus two. If one pair of folks in your bridge

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Speaker 1: group splits up, maybe the party who is more into

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Speaker 1: it keeps coming and you bring in a new bridge enthusiast,

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Speaker 1: so you still have got the right number. Now, there

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Speaker 1: may be a whole separate, thorny issue of which part

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Speaker 1: of a splitting couple gets custody, as it were, of

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Speaker 1: which friend groups. But if you, as a couple are

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Speaker 1: truly good friends with both parties who are splitting, you

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Speaker 1: can get together with each of them as a group

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Speaker 1: of three, or add in some others to be a

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Speaker 1: group of five or six or whatever. Friends are friends

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Speaker 1: and they don't always come in pairs. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. M