I’ve always loved Las Vegas. There is something magical about the way of life in that city and I knew it was the perfect place to get married. I’ve never been the type of girl to spend lots of money on a one day event and I’m not religious, so Vegas it was! We brought our immediate families and signed away our freedom in May of 2004. As a wedding gift, we were given watches by his mother. Intersting side note, I never wear a watch (so mine is practically brand new).There was a big glaring red flag of future divorce when he answered a phone call from his daughter’s mom while we were on our honeymoon. She threw a holy fit about us getting married and demanded that he come home after claiming that she was excited at the opportunity to get her lazy hands on my income. He actually considered heading home. I went downstairs for a cocktail. At the time I thought I could handle their odd relationship thinking that he was just trying to keep her calm for their daughter’s sake. I was wrong; he was the Kermit to her Miss Piggy.

My ex and I were having issues- money, communication, kids, the ever present whining of his kid’s mother, and his lack of work ethic. Our situation was tense; I was suffering from an anxiety disorder and he was only concerned with getting it on. I struggled internally for months with depression and stress. We could never afford our bills and his job was giving him less and less hours (while he enjoyed the extra time off by vegging on the couch). I could see the end of the relationship miles away, but when you are wrapped up in mortgage payments, child rearing and the like, it’s hard to quietly exit stage left without causing a scene. I was bothered by his constant weakness when it came to his ex’s demands and started to distant myself from him physically. His laziness and weakness was a huge turnoff. I came to realize that I needed a man who was willing to work hard, pay his bills, take care of his body, and as a bonus could also take care of my car. You know, like a real man.

The downward spiral of my short marriage began with MySpace. I can smell a liar from a mile away and my ex was full of them. While reading in bed one night, I noticed he was acting odd while typing away on the computer. Since I come from a computer savvy family, I jumped on the computer the next day to see what the guy had been up to. He had been busy forming a relationship with a lonely, large gal on MySpace. They were planning to hook up and he had spilled our life story to her (with many edits to make him look better of course). She felt so sorry for him and his cold wife that she had offered up her lonely thighs for his pleasure. Gross. That was the last straw for me, after four years of standing by while his ex walked all over him and our finances I was more than ready to move on to better things. We actually were quite civil during the beginning of the end, until he found out that I was dating another man. Then all of sudden everything that was wrong with our relationship was my fault. He moved into his ex’s dad’s house, left all the bills to me, and took all the vehicles with him. I was happy to see the guy go honestly, I’d had enough long ago. He did quickly skip into the arms of his ex (yes, the Miss Piggy who had been present all along. Do I think he was cheating with her during our marriage? Of course I do.). They now live together in her house and I’m willing to bet he is skipping out on those bills as well.

I learned a valuable lesson during those four years- marriage is not my cup of tea (or coffee in my case). I bought a brand new vehicle, filed bankruptcy (I had no choice due to the situation, he wouldn’t help with any of the house bills), got a promotion at work, and jumped back into the dating game. Dating is so much more fun than being married in my opinion! I met some wonderful men and had some wonderful adventures. In 2009 I met the most amazing guy; he is everything I’ve ever looked for in a partner.