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

The Underdog

It's the end of baseball season and since I'm a Californian now, I root for the LA Dodgers, and woo hoo!! They were victorious last night over the NY Yankees in a four game World Series! It makes me think back to this time of year in my hometown of Kansas City when the Royals had a team roster of phenoms like third-baseman George Brett. My ex and I had season tickets to the Royals in the 1980s--and witnessed their zenith in '85 when they were World Series champs the... Read More

Uncharted

I took a trip early in my singlehood to a place that will forever be on my list of beautiful vacation destinations: Sun Valley, an Idaho resort town where I’d never been before. But the difference about this getaway from the others I’d taken since my divorce? It was my first foray outside my comfort zone with a man–a straight, single man whom I met through mutual friends. We had emailed and talked on the phone for months, so I knew he was who he said he was, and that... 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

A Shiny New Life

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