Happy New Year, Happy Anniversary, Happy Me
Yes, it’s possible to find lasting love with a left-click of your mouse. To wit: today’s my wedding anniversary.
Late in the last millenium, I moved back to California, leaving behind the remnants of a marriage that ended long before it was legally over. It was a triumphant return to familiar surroundings, sunshine, and myself. I fell back in love with the neighborhoods I remembered from my childhood, and I reclaimed what I’d lost in my failed relationship. In the process, I cleared the path for a new life and new love.
Over the next couple of years, I went on a number of dates with men who, as it turned out (how to say this kindly?), didn’t meet my admittedly high expectations. Meanwhile, I busied myself with my sons and my career, teaching and traveling around the world to give keynote speeches for the professional organization over which I presided. But when I returned home from my journeys, I turned the key to an empty home and empty heart, save for my wonderful sons and sweet kitty, Zoe.
Long story made short: I discovered an online dating community (Matchmaker.com), logged on and met my future husband. Fast-forward past his initial email to me, the standard “phone chemistry” test that followed, the first “is-there-a-physical-attraction” meeting at a coffee house, and the eventual “I’d like to explore an exclusive relationship, would you?” Zillions of dates and about 2.5 years later, the man I’d met in cyberspace proposed marriage in my favorite spot, an oasis in Palm Springs. I knew much earlier that this mensch was the man of my dreams, so I cried happy tears as I said, “yes.” We were married in an intimate ceremony in Santa Barbara, on a summer-like morning four years ago today.
About twenty years ago, a Newsweek cover story, “The Marriage Crunch,” suggested a woman in her forties was more likely to be hit by a terrorist bomb than Cupid’s arrow. Long before that theory got debunked, I proved it wrong, and I’m now living happily ever after with my very own Prince Charming.
(Yes, there is a connection between this story and my nonfiction work about trophy wives, but that’s another blog entry and a chapter in my book.)