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

Partner Wanted

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

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