A few weeks ago, I went out to dinner with my parents to celebrate my birthday. After dinner we came home for the Cake and Presents portion of the evening (my favorite part, of course).

I started opening gifts—a new novel, a cute little cardigan for work, a hanging decoration for my apartment—when I reached for what was clearly a jewelry box. My mother had given me a gorgeous necklace—stylish, dressy but not too dressy, and it hits just the right spot on my neck. Then I saw she had also bought coordinating earrings. My first reaction was a huge … Read More

Last week, I wrote about my friend Amber's breakup and I mentioned how terrible her boyfriend was. But when the relationship first started, I thought he was great. I was thrilled to see her with a man who loved her and treated her like a princess. Then, the tides turned. By the end, the best thing that could be said about her ex was that he was nice, sometimes. But more often than not, he was rude, immature, stubborn, and completely disrespectful toward my girl.

Her situation made me wonder why it's easy for so many women to brush … Read More

My friend Amber recently broke up with her boyfriend of four months. Even though they had only been together a short time, they moved at lightning speed and with the seriousness of a heart attack, so the breakup was dramatic, devastating—and 100% necessary, since he was terrible for her.

When it ended, Amber and I had daily conversations about how she was doing and what she was thinking. In the span of a week, she went from heartbroken to sympathetic to wanting him back to downright angry. This man treated her like dirt, and I'm thrilled to have her … Read More

About a month ago, I was on my lunch break at work when I bumped into a girl from my high school graduating class. In the midst of choosing a sandwich, I heard her voice behind me: "Michelle?"

It turns out she also left our small Pennsylvania town and (like me) works in the magazine industry. What's more, her office is a block away from mine. We never really knew each other in high school, but since this is such a strange coincidence we're planning to get together soon and swap stories (namely: how the hell did she end … Read More

I love men. There's just something about them as a population that drives me crazy. Every once in a while, I'll see a man do something, say something, or act a certain way, and I fall in love with the Y chromosome all over again.

One of the perks of having a serious boyfriend was being able to see all the wonderful 'man' things on a regular basis. From the sexy things, like watching him putting on a tie (oh yeah, it gets to me), to the sweet things, like him coming up from behind and wrapping me in … Read More

I think my nose is leading a mutiny against me. I'll go days without even a thought of Alex, and then all of a sudden I'll get a whiff of something that will bring back a flood of memories and interrupt my day.

For example: While I was dressing for work earlier this week (in the record-breaking heat, I might add), I reached for my favorite warm-weather perfume. The same perfume I used to spritz on before summer dates with Alex last year. Needless to say, this was a bad idea.

As soon as it hit my wrist, I was … Read More

Since I’m new to this whole “single” thing, I sometimes seek advice from my single friends. And almost all of them tell me they have deal breakers in their relationships. Whether it's something as big as never wanting to get married or as small as not liking the same music, anything can kill a relationship. According to my friends, once they learned what they can and can’t put up with, they streamlined the dating process by weeding out the bad apples quickly and efficiently.

I seem to have missed this lesson in Dating 101. The words–“deal breaker”–are part of everyone’s … Read More

Last week, I wrote an album review for a band that Alex introduced me to a couple years ago. Even though he listened to them first, I quickly put the group's last few albums in my regular rotation and jumped at the chance to cover their most recent release.

After the review went up online, I thought it'd be nice to tell Alex about it. After all, he suggested I listen to them in the first place. I've always believed in giving credit where credit is due.

I sent him the link and he wrote me back the next day. … Read More

In the post-Alex dating world, I seem to be much more focused on finding a serious partner than I was in my pre-Alex single adventures. Sure, the idea of finding a relationship has usually been in the back of my mind, but back then it was more about fun than it was about finding someone who’ll stick. But now, after getting used to having that serious partner, I feel like I should be looking for the next great romance rather than just enjoying myself.

I have to wonder when I became so focused on the goal of finding one person to … Read More

Lately I’ve been testing the waters of the dating pool again, and I have to say, I forgot how much fun—and how much work—it can be. While I still think about Alex regularly and definitely have more healing to do, it’s been nice to get back on the proverbial horse.

For a little while, I was dating one guy in particular. He never made it into the blog because I wanted to see where the whole thing was going first. Eventually it played itself out—although we had a lot of fun together, the spark and the passion were missing. Maybe we … Read More