tied up with the knot

A dating columnist I read regularly is Fred Gonzalez of the Miami Herald. He's single, and wrote a recent column about having dinner with a married couple. For them, it was a temporary reprieve from the world of children, and they talked his ear off. An excerpt:

It wasn't that they were rude. On the contrary, they were as polite and sweet as could be, but they finally had a chance to socialize outside of a Disney on Ice event and were like an iPod on "shuffle all" mode for three hours.

As dinner progressed, questions popped in my head.

"Was I like this when I was married? Is this inevitable if I get married again? Is there a switch in your brain that goes off when your status changes from single to married?"

I've been in the same situation. I'm not a cynic, but it seems like many encounters I have with married couples put doubts in my mind about tying the knot.

It's not like I'm even hanging around with people who fight constantly. It's just the little things -- like women who go from being really laid-back girlfriends to grounding their husbands for the weekend if they come home five minutes late.

Or couples who are so starved for grown-up contact that they bury their single adult friends in stories about vomit and bed-wetting.

I know your conversation repertoire changes once you're married, but does there have to be a point where you lose all relatability to your single friends?

Also, if you're single, how do you reconcile the fears you get from watching married couples in action?

(No, not in THAT way, perverts.)