ruining fairy tales with reality

so this musical we're doing (Into the Woods) is a conglomeration of all these fairy tales into one giant mess with new character interactions and plot twists that we were not told as children. there is a song halfway through called Agony, and it's two princes singing together about the women they want - the first rendition of the song is a prince longing for cinderella, and the other prince is longing for rapunzel. as the story continues, they get the women they want and marry them, but wait! that's not all. apparently the nature of princes is as they were written - to long after the unattainable. so there is an Agony reprise, where the princes go on to sing about how they long for snow white and sleeping beauty - bringing in more fairy tale references, but more importantly something not typical of fairy tales - infidelity.

as much as i frown on infidelity and how these princes disgust me (especially the line "oh well, back to my wife"), i can't stop listening to the song as the melody of Agony is rather haunting. when thinking about the princes and my irritation, it makes sense. what these princes are really doing is following their programming, but in reality it has more to do with what you think you want vs. what you need. this is my problem with couples, or more specifically being in a couple. how can you enter a relationship when both people are coming from different directions, have different needs, and often they aren't aware of what it is that they DO need, or where they're going from that initial attraction?

i live vicariously through my friends' love lives, and hearing about the romantic beginning is always best. the latter details of compromise, issues, etc... eh. i don't know if i'm ready. it's not that i'm single and screaming from the rooftops how happy i am about it - but i was at a point where trying to be with someone made me in an almost constant state of misery and it distracted me from doing things i really wanted to do. so now i'm single, and doing those things and thus i am happy. however i would like to figure out how to not be miserable w/ someone, but i've been single for so long that i have no idea how that actually works in a successful manner. new york is probably not the best place to find someone interested in emotional investment, anyway. maybe it's a dream that you have as a child - to truly connect with someone - and the longer you stay here the more that dream fades until you start to think as everyone else does.

oh and don't even get me started on all these stupid girls waiting around for their prince to come.