Regardless of how significant your significant other may be, it’s still fun (borderline necessary) to go your own way occasionally.
Since most couples share the same interests and hobbies – music, sports, friends – it can be tough not to spend 100% of your day with nothing but the bathroom door to temporarily separate you.  Soon sharing a toothbrush becomes normal and conversations consist of finishing every sentence for each other.
But before the man starts holding the ball of yarn and spending his nights watching her knit – before the woman begins to watch three football games in a row without a single interruption, maybe it’s time for each person to “break free” for a while – take a night to kick up their heels without the other person. Hence the birth of gender nights.
Ladies night usually consists of a woman and her friends dressing up for each other and gathering to talk, vent and complain and then dance it off. These nights are a great opportunity for women to encourage each other as well as compare life stories and the doorbusters they most recently scored. Success is measured by friends not bailing for a date and the right mix of Lady GaGa and Akon tunes at the club. Being offered free drinks from desperate single men is always a bonus – whether or not the drink is needed, wanted or accepted.
Guys night is an evening dedicated to comparing video game skills and drinking beer. Conversation consists of sports and cutting down their friends as much as possible. Rumor has it, they occasionally talk about women. All good things, I’m sure.  Success is measured by declaration of the gaming champ, drinking a disgusting amount of beer and failing to supply the group with new heckling material.
The main rule of gender nights?  These sacred evenings are not to be interrupted by significant others regardless of what stage they are in a relationship. Women will break this rule if the circumstances are right. After all, any new man needs to pass inspection. To the contrary, guys get laughably defensive about their night, pointing out of the already obvious “guys only!” rule. They likely don’t realize most women would rather spend their evening watching a gory horror film, eating a dangerously rare steak and cleaning their own hair out of the bathtub drain.
No need to express the non-invite guys, and I’m sure – unless you have a strange obsession with dancing to “Poker Face” – the feelings toward joining an opposite gender night are mutual.
Shootin’ the Wit is a column about everyday life that should never, ever be taken too seriously.

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I’m a writer and photographer who loves old cars, big dogs and trying stuff for the first time. I believe everyone should have a bucket list because life isn’t about working, paying bills and having the latest and greatest. It’s about experiences. Achieving goals. People. Adventures. Travel.

I’ve never dyed my hair, broken a bone, or watched a Star Wars movie, and I don’t plan on doing any of these.