I'm going to step up and agree with Derk and Drunk, here. Whatever happened to dating, courtship and marriage Drunk asks? Believe it or not, it does still exist when people give it a chance. I'm sure somebody will call b.s. on me, but that's exactly what my wife and I did 8 years ago. I just got tired of playing the games, getting nowhere in relationships, and like you said CK - who wants to gamble on an STD? Consider the statistics - 50% of marriages fail and more of those that do fail began with sex way too early, and living together often factors in. Who wants a divorce? It just seemed like making a change and playing the odds in my favor made sense on something this serious (or something that could become this serious).
So the next question somebody will ask is was it worth it? Damn right - 7 1/2 years and going stronger than a lot of marriages/relationships I see. We got the basics figured out early, worked on them first, and it works. Wasn't it hard? Yeah, I got used to the color blue, but what really good thing have you ever achieved without sacrifice? And believe me, a year's worth of tension letting loose is something worth experiencing.
It wasn't about being prudish or pretending to be better than anybody else for either of us. What it was about was realizing what a special person I had found, proving to each other and ourselves that we would make a major sacrifice for each other, giving our relationship every possible advantage in case we got married and along with that, we wanted to know that if we had kids that they would have the best chances to be lucky enough to grow up in an intact family. It all boils down to what you really want and what you're willing to work on and/or sacrifice in order to get it.
So what’s the point of this post? I think giving up the freedom of being a man-ho can give you the best chance of freedom from unhappiness in relationships. Sounds like your not normal girl just might have figured that out for herself, too, so my advice? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth if you like everything else about her. Besides, sometimes not normal is better - afterall, in terms of income, $250K per year isn't normal, but has some definite up sides!
As for Derk & Drunk - you guys are doing it right. Wanting better for yourself from the beginning beats the hell out of having to figure it all out from mistakes and having to try and make things right. :bigthumb: