We've all seen the headlines: "7 Signs Your Man is Cheating" and "How to Know if Your Wife Is Having an Affair." I don't know about you, but I used to hold my marriage up to those checklists and, upon finding none of the warning signs in my own relationship,...

I currently live at the intersection of divorced and engaged. It's a temporary home, one which I will only occupy for a little more than a year. I am never sure how to answer when people inquire about my relationship status. If I reply that I am divorced, they look...

Often, the lessons we need most are the ones we are most resistant to. I never wanted to be divorced. In fact, losing my husband, through any means, was my greatest fear in life. So, when I found myself suddenly single at the age of 32 after being betrayed by...

When people learn that my husband of ten years abandoned me with a text message, avoided any communication, committed marital fraud and carried out felony bigamy, the first reaction I get is often surprise and disbelief. The second? Blame.

I've heard it all. He must have...

I started watching The Dog Whisperer about a year after my sudden divorce. Much to my surprise, I learned even more about myself from Cesar Millan than I did about my dog. He always says in his show that he "rehabilitates dogs," but he "trains people." In my case, he...

When my husband left, I trembled for a year. That's not just some figurative language used to convey emotion; I literally shook. For a year. My body quaked from the aftershocks of the sudden trauma, my legs constantly kicking and my hands quivering. Those weren't my only symptoms, either. I...

I visited my local Starbucks the other day to enjoy some coffee and free Wi-Fi. I was engaged in relatively simple research, so I let my ears wander to the conversations around me. One in particular caught my attention, as it pertained to my current status as a bride-to-be. There...

Many of us will face a personal tsunami at some point in our lives. We will be felled by a great wave bringing with it sudden change and loss. Perhaps your tsunami is in the form of the death of a loved one, maybe it is the loss of a...

I recently met a fellow divorcee and runner over breakfast in a hotel lobby. We bonded over talk about our respective divorces and our motivations to run the race that we had both completed the previous morning. Eventually, she asked the inevitable question: "Do you want to get remarried?"

I...

Divorce is disorienting. You find yourself topsy-turvy in a world suddenly devoid of sense and reason. It is though the book of your life was suddenly ripped in two and you are standing midway through the story with no idea where the narrative goes next. It's scary, but there are...

My recent post, It's Not Fraud if You're Married generated some insightful comments and interesting questions. Many people questioned how my ex could commit marital fraud (and actually bigamy as well) and walk away from criminal consequences. It was recommended that I find him, sue him, or publicize...

"It's not fraud if you're married," the policeman said apologetically. As I registered his words, the enormity of what I was facing became clear.

My ex-husband and I first established a household together in our late teens. We came together with nothing. We opened up joint accounts and scrupulously...

"When am I ever gonna use this?" As an eighth-grade algebra teacher, I hear this refrain at least once a week. It's a difficult question to answer. I mean, when is the last time that your employer asked you to factor a polynomial or prove two polygons congruent? The truth...

If my husband had been Pinocchio, his nose would have been a giant redwood. While we were married, I thought he was a real boy. Once he disappeared, I learned otherwise.

My husband and I used to watch "Lost" and shake our heads in disbelief at Sawyer's deceptions....

I found myself suddenly single and dating at the age of 32 after the abrupt demise of a 16-year relationship. As I had never read "The Rules," been around many single people, or even dated a man before (do the math... they were boys when I was last dating!), I...

Some divorces are like the outgoing tide -- a slow and inexorable decline. Others are like a summer storm over the beach, building until the clouds can simply hold no more, the rain washing hard rivets into the sand. Still others are like a tsunami, a great wave arising from...

I never thought much about gender. I never felt limited by my sex, nor entitled because of it. The "F" printed on my driver's license never had any conscious impact on my decisions in life, whether it was to go to college or not have children. My marriage was defined...

My divorce certainly did not present itself as a gift, trussed up with a big red bow like a Lexus in a Christmas commercial. Instead, it was a big ugly box, filled to the brim with explosives. It was a present I never anticipated and one I never desired. But,...