“I Like Sex”

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
When the trash truck rear-ended my car while I was stopped at an intersection, I should have suspended all dating plans for fear of what comes next. Not a real woo-woo girl in general, I still take note of full moons, that damn Mercury in retrograde and the resulting whiplash that happens when an 8,000-pound vehicle slams into my bumper. Days before, my dermatologist cut into my left cheek (the one on my face) and sliced away a basal cell carcinoma, leaving about an inch-long line of black stitches crawling... Read More

Partner Wanted

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
When I turned 60, I hoped for a river cruise down the Seine as a gift. But instead, I discovered that my husband, the one who never looked at another woman in my presence, was leading a secret life. After filing for divorce, I took a leap and landed 1,700 miles across the country to start my life over in Palm Springs. My next leap? Dating in a digital world. I soon match with a widower who was moving into a new house along with his young adult son. “He’s... Read More

Anticipation

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
It’s the one place I come to find clarity. Within a few blocks of my Palm Springs neighborhood, I leave the pavement and stride up a tan path that's tamped down to dust by runners, bikers, dogs and a few horses. I head east about a mile in one direction. To my right, there’s a steep slope down to a ravine that locals call “the wash.” The rare inch or two of rain we get here can transform this divot that’s situated between my elevated path and the mountains into... Read More

A Shiny New Life

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
I remember the sparkle. The shimmery pink diaphanous tablecloths, the candlelight that danced up and down the towering crystal vases filled with satiny white gladiolus and more than a dozen place settings of good silver that created a dazzling perimeter around the dining room. “Wow, sixty’s not so bad,” I thought, grinning, as I drank in the scene of the most elegant birthday party given in my honor—ever. The hosts were my childhood friend and his husband, and they were standing alongside my husband of nearly 30 years, champagne flutes... Read More

Why Bits and Bobs?

Posted on by Giddyup,Linda!
Full disclosure: There's nothing British about me. Although I've titled this blog space with a British saying that means "small objects or parts of something," I'm a born and bred Midwesterner who divorced my husband of many years, then transplanted myself in the California desert. I started over in this place of rough and tumble beauty as a 60-year-old straight woman, mom, GG to her grand-kids, magazine writer and devoted yogi with one gay friend, grande margarita and tear-stained cocktail napkin at a time. It felt like free-falling off a... Read More