Profiled: Part 2

With more time under my belt as a single woman, the odor of my difficult divorce dissipated, and I was ready to show my kinder, gentler side. I revised my dating profile, cutting and pasting until the final version felt like a blurred photo suddenly coming into focus: I'm a straight shooter who is what she seems--no games, looking for quality vs. quantity. My photos are all recent. I'm educated and self-supporting and you are as well. If you're curious, smart and funny (David Sedaris, dry-witted funny), you're a triple... Read More

Profiled: Part 1

I'm a woman who likes details.  So it's no surprise that I jotted down information about the dates I've been on since my divorce.  I'd have my notes ready before a second date to refresh my memory about the guys I met online. Answers are often in the details. My first step, though, was writing MY profile that told interested parties what I was looking for in a date.  I joined two sites, match.com and Tinder, and hoped men would swipe right and start an online conversation.  That was 10... Read More

Uncoupled

I describe divorce as an out of body experience, where the team you've played on for decades is now in "man down" mode. When I first filled out forms asking my marital status, it felt strange checking the box next to SINGLE, like a kite flying aimlessly with no one holding the string. I'd marked MARRIED for most of my adult life and never thought I'd be anything but that for the rest of my days.  One part of me knew I was single, but another part felt as if... Read More

Chemistry 101

I don’t expect every date to feel like the chemistry experiments my lab partner and I muddled through in high school, the ones where the desired outcome was an exciting, and sometimes explosive, reaction. That word desire, however, continues to confound me just like Chemistry class did. In a romance, it’s certainly more fun when there's a mutual desire that clicks. But finding it and keeping it feel a bit like digging through the earth's crust to China. I’d been in the dating pool for two years when I met... Read More

“I Like Sex”

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