In writing honestly about how I met my second husband, Johnny Depp’s opening monologue from The Libertine comes to mind:

“Allow me to be frank at the commencement. You will not like me. The gentlemen will be envious and the ladies will be repelled. You will not like me now, and you will like me a good deal less as we go on.”

Maybe that’s my flair for the dramatics talking, but that’s sometimes how I feel when I’m about to tell someone the truth about how I met the love of my life — while I was still married…

I’m a firm believer that when the balance of a relationship is destroyed by cheating, not all the blame lies solely with the offending party.

Don’t get me wrong — there are definitely times when a cheater is fully at fault for their own flawed decisions. They may have the most caring, dedicated, and compatible partner in the world, yet they give in to temptation in a moment of weakness for purely selfish reasons.

But I think that’s the exception to the rule. In most cases, the relationship is falling apart in some way before the cheating even happens. …

Sex is not meaningless.

Even if you’re not in a committed relationship and it’s strictly “just sex.” Even if it’s a purely physical relationship, no emotional strings attached. Even if it’s a one-night-stand and you don’t know each other’s names. The truth is — even the most carefree, uncommitted sexual encounter is intimate. You’re sharing your most private body parts with another human being. You’re sharing bodily fluids, pleasure, lust.

It may just be about sex, but sex is never meaningless. So make sure your partner is on the same level when it comes to what the sexual encounter means. Does it mean the…

I’m not a perfect woman. News flash, I know.

Many of us can relate. We are not perfect human beings. We all make mistakes. We stray from the path. We hurt ourselves and others, and, hopefully, we learn from our mistake — but sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right.

Confession: when it comes to my history of monogamous relationships, I don’t have the best track record for fidelity.

I’ve gotten involved in emotional affairs, sexting, dating, and, on occasion, physical intimacy behind a partner’s back. Well, several partners’ backs.

It started in high school, junior year…

When I was a kid and my parents were planning a trip to Disney World for me and my sister, I was looking forward to seeing the ocean again even more than the Magic Kingdom.

We were staying on the Gulf side of Flordia, a little over an hour’s drive to the amusement park. I’d been to Myrtle Beach before and loved it, but never Florida. And I wanted to see the ocean again. The sand, the sunrise over the water, the waves. That was my happiest place on Earth (Sorry, Mickey).

I’ve always felt a strong connection to the…

I got back into running again recently.

And by “got back into,” I mean that I’ve been out on a long run all of one time in the last week. Before that, it had been a little over two months. I love outdoor running with a passion, but my struggle nowadays is consistency.

I could go into all the excuses of why it’s been difficult for me to keep a running routine. But the truth is, these excuses add up to the fact that I’m simply struggling to do what’s good and healthy for me often enough. Consistent wine drinking…

I recently attended a virtual presentation about a unique approach to monetizing your podcast. The method involves avoiding sponsors and affiliates, and instead focusing on creating and selling a digital product to your listener audiences, like an e-book or online course.

As a passionate writer, publishing a book always sounds appealing. I’ve published only a couple on Amazon, and I loved the whole process.

So, naturally, I signed up for a free one-on-one video chat with the podcast coach who had developed this monetization method. That’s when I found out that the cost of their services — a digital course…

I’ve always been on the curvier side as far as my chest goes. By the time I got to high school, I was a full C. I eventually got bigger and settled into a D cup.

My hefty breasts have never been too much of an issue for me. The biggest inconvenience is that I do prefer wearing two sports bras whenever I go on a run — otherwise the gals bounce with a mind of their own and it’s just pure chaos.

I do have to add, however, that I’ve not always been a fan of the attention I’ve…