A New Chapter

For more than two decades now, I've been keeping a journal. Long before there was a Bridget Jones, or even a Carrie Bradshaw, I was writing about my adventures in and out of the big city, in and out of the dating world. I've filled the pages of more than 90 handwritten journals, resisting the temptation to put down my pen and hit the keyboard instead.

Now, as I hover on the precipice of the big 3-5, I can't help wondering if it's time to supplement my private, portable writings with something in the blogosphere. And so it is that, with some encouragement from several of my fabulous girlfriends, Single Gal in the City is, at long last, making her online debut.

I make no apologies for appropriating my title from that little HBO series that became a cultural phenonemon, and now, one of the summer's hottest movies (with the highest-ever opening for a romantic comedy). Critics and elitist naysayers be damned, Sex and the City - much like Bridget Jones' Diary - resonated with women like myself by portraying with honesty and wit the up's and down's of dating, friendship and big city life--and topping it off with a heavy dose of fashion eye candy.

As for me, I've often joked that my life here in my beloved New York is very SATC - minus the great sex and the great shoes. Like Ms. Bradshaw, I cherish my friendships, adore my city and do a lot of reflecting about the opposite sex. But when it comes to my healthy appetite for both carbs and cosmos, and my penchant for Payless over Manolos, I'm definitely more of a Bridget Jones kind of girl.

One more explanatory note about how Single Gal in the City will unfold - it will be a blog that mingles past and present together. Because I'll be juxtaposing my current-day adventures and reflections with entries from the aforementioned 90+ handwritten journals I've filled. From the ghost of a long-distance love spanning 14 years to the 300 roses I once received from a smitten Englishman, I've experienced some memorable affairs of the heart. I'm looking forward to sharing these adventures from my past, and the ones to come.

--Melissa