All by myself ... Don't wanna be, all by myself

I am technically not all by myself. I have a wonderful husband and a darling daughter. And we have a dog. He's pretty awesome.

But sometimes I wonder, where did my friends go?

For a solid five years there, my husband and I had our weekends booked seeing friends, drinking, doing stuff. I remember remarking how I wasn't this popular in high school - so what happened?

Frankly, it was a lot of fun.

Cue baby.

Sure, when our daughter was still very tiny, I took her with us and we still stayed out late. But then she hit about six months and we started a bedtime routine complete with the same time to bed every night. And here ended our carefree nights out.

All of my female friends either live too far away to call up for a quick coffee, or have also recently had children, so often also aren't available at the drop of a hat.

I've tried setting up girls' events. Dinner out. A book club with some other moms (the goal being to read novellas because who has time for a whole book?), and even simple play dates.

Nada.

The schedule of any mother, it seems, is to stay home and watch Netflix once their child goes to bed. Or that's the case in my circle of friends.

I am envious when I hear about other friends going out. I am insanely jealous of my husband's semi-regular boys' nights (spent mostly playing a game and having a beer or two).

I don't help my cause - I work an early morning shift so get up at 4:30 a.m.-ish each weekday, meaning a weeknight is out for me. But I also am not sure it would make a difference.

I can see why moms turn to Facebook and over share - it's the only way some people can make a connection.

I tried an online forum for a bit, but the atmosphere reminded me too much of high school, except here the mean girls had avatars with cupcakes and rainbows and names like aLlInEeDiSLOVE or something similarly stupid.

Sigh.

Oh, woe is me, cue the tiny violin and listen to the mom bitch about how all her friends have forsaken her. It's a fairly common refrain.

I just never thought I'd be the one saying it.