I had mentioned that I was a dating expert, and she confessed how much she wanted to be married and settled, and how hard it was to date sometimes.

I sympathized with her and offered some pointers on what she might do to have more success. Then we both got comfortable and read for the rest of the flight.

As it so happens, I was reading a very funny novel called Sleeping with Ward Cleaver, about a woman who wakes up one day and realizes her husband has become the most boring man on the planet.

I'm guessing she's not the only one.

I started thinking about how much the woman seated next to me wanted to be married, and how the things we're hoping to get from marriage (comfort, security, love) sometimes end up smothering us or at the very least, putting us to sleep earlier and earlier every night.

It occurred to me that, married or not, almost every person I know who is part of a long-term couple is kind of boring. And that includes me. Married people live in their own little world, where television passes for entertainment, sex is frequently a chore and chat about bodily functions passes for interesting conversation.

Dr. John Curtis, author of Happily Un-Married: Living Together and Loving It! says, "I would offer that the stability that comes with marriage is often misinterpreted as boring."

But Jenny Gardiner , married mother of three and author of Sleeping with Ward Cleaver says," If you let it, it will happen. You'll become boring. Once kids come along, it's really hard to fight it."

Lainie Friedman, a VP of Colangelo & Partners Public Relations, is single but attached. She says she and her boyfriend frequently double-date with married couples, and "Most of the wives are pretty dull now and the only conversation they can offer is about their kids."

Sure, couplehood has its appeal. For some, it's the idea of having one special person to spend your life with, a person who knows everything about you, someone to share the mortgage payments with, build a home with, maybe start a family.

But why do once-interesting single people become uninteresting partnered people?