Engagement bonanza

Facebook, I'm tired of your damn hearts.

You know the drill: You log on and immediately see one of those tiny pink hearts followed by "is engaged."

Then, you have to type a creative, personalized version of "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!"

Is it just me, or has engagement season been especially rough this time around?

No joke: I've had three friends get engaged in the past two weeks. Total count for this season is approaching 10.

Luckily, I'm not alone. This post was prompted by a deluge of tweets and status updates reading something to the effect of, "It seems like everyone I know is getting engaged."

Unfortunately, engagement reflux syndrome is an inevitable result of our heightened connectivity.

An abundance of casual online "friends" makes it even easier to judge your life against somebody else's.

Chances are, people aren't getting engaged any more frequently than they were three years ago. We just keep more contacts -- heightening our chances of hearing about an engagement.

There's no magic formula for staying afloat when you're drowning in engagement news.

The best advice is to put your discomfort aside and accept the engagement as an addition to someone else's happiness, rather than a detraction from your own.