Elizabeth Wurtzel, wife material
It's not like I called boyfriends at 2 a.m. because something was wrong: I did it because I liked to talk in the dark when there was nothing good to watch on TV anymore.
Not that I am all to blame for my messed-up love life. I was in the same relationship with different people for 30 years. I know a bad idea when I see one, and I like what I see. If a man drank Jameson for breakfast and then smashed the bottle into bits on the bathroom tiles possibly by mistake, he was my boyfriend.
Many romances end after three years because that is their logical limit, which does not mean the time was wasted: Most relationships, including marriages, end, but we continue to have them and it is not because we hate ourselves. I believe that we all know what we are getting into with another person early on, and it is worth it, whatever the duration. A lifelong thing is lovely, but a one-night stand is also lovely. It is my good fortune never to have wed the 374 or so men I dated before Jim. I don't know how many times I should have registered at Tiffany and celebrated extravagantly for the mistakes I did not make.