Cocktail Hour, a webcomic

Chris and I were together about 3 years, all told, and it almost wasn’t even that long. You see, 6 months in I found out (in other words, we had a “fight” and he told me) that he’d lied to me in order to get me to marry him. The what about isn’t really imporant (and, in fact, has very little bearing on my life today but back then it was important and that’s what counts) but there was a time when I thought it would end, then. It didn’t because I didn’t “believe” in divorce at the time. But I did think, for a little while, that I would leave him and run away to culinary school in Pennsylvannia. I started saving a little money each week and hid it in my purse but one night Chris went looking for something and came across my little stash (it was all of $200, but it seemed like a lot), he got scared, woke me up from a dead sleep and begged me not to leave him. So I stayed.

So it seemed more than a little coincidental when the local section of our paper ran an article on the new Culinary School opening up the day Chris and I met with the judge to finalize the divorce. I wasn’t the first to call them about it or schedule an interview, but I was the first to sign on the dotted line, pay my fee and enroll. I liked that. Too bad I was in the night group and our schedule pushed us an extra semester otherwise I would have been first in line to graduate as well (it helps that I was not only teacher’s pet with every single chef and a straight-A, award winning student but my last name started with ‘A’ at the time, too!). But the schedule, as it was, was brutal! I worked full time, leaving around 4:30 each day to go home, change, grab something quick to eat on the way and was in class from 5:30 to 11 or later 4 nights a week. The second year was the worst, though, and I kept getting sick: no more crazy schedule for me!

But since I spent my days around the same 2 sets of people, most of the members of those sets being unfavorable for dating for a number of reasons, voice personals and online dating seemed to be the best way to go. These days I don’t think anyone does voice or newspaper personals anymore, but online dating is totally everywhere! Back then, not so much…