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" Went away on a work trip and now I&amp;#039;m back. Because of my job as a writer, I was fortunate to be able to go to Berlin to cover the Berlinale Film Festival which was sponsored by Volkswagen. It was a totally cool because there were lots of parties and other journalists there that I met and connected with.  Before I left I was sad to leave Dan behind, and even thought about not going. In fact, this was the first time Dan and I have been apart since we&amp;#039;ve been married. So there was a part of me that was anxious to leave him, but another part of me that was like &amp;quot;Girl, you used to travel and do stuff by yourself all the time! Go!&amp;quot; But the other big thing that pushed me to go \u2014 and made Dan encourage me to go \u2014 was both of us needing to get in some quality alone time with ourselves. When we bought our house and moved to our new town earlier this year, it was really crazy how dependent we became on each other emotionally and even socially. When you move someplace new with your man, all you have is each other. We knew (and still really don&amp;#039;t know) NO ONE else, and really struggled with not having our friends \u2014 both couple friends that we would go out with together as well as independent friends, like my BFF who I could just take off and have a cup of coffee with or Dan&amp;#039;s friend Fred, who he used to jam guitar with every once in a while \u2014 near us anymore. I adore Dan and he adores me, but since we moved we&amp;#039;ve been with each other ALL the time. It&amp;#039;s really hard to make new friends when you&amp;#039;re in your 30s and in the &amp;#039;burbs \u2014 and all this togetherness and lack of outside relationships has made us be on edge with each other. Plus, when you get married, you \u2014 in a singular way \u2014 sort of disappears. I went from just &amp;quot;Jane&amp;quot; to &amp;quot;JaneandDan.&amp;quot; And the biggest part of me LOVES that. I love that when I got married, I found a life partner \u2014 that I had this best friend who was always there \u2014 to share in life&amp;#039;s craziness, to hang out with, to face life with. I love being married. And I love being married to Dan. But I also have a teensy-weensy part of me that misses who I was before I got married \u2014 someone who went to movies alone, who was revved up by my own independence in a Mary Tyler Moore kind of way. And when I was away, I got to be that girl again. But absence DOES make the heart grow fonder \u2014 after three days of being just &amp;quot;Jane,&amp;quot; I was thrilled to step off the plane, run into my husband&amp;#039;s arms, cover him in smooches, and return to being &amp;quot;JaneandDan.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/relationships/a2627/im-backand-better-than-before/>