Relationships and Going Places

Ian kissed me often and seriously after that first [kiss]. I was thrilled every time. I had fantasies of what it would be like to be his wife. I knew the 'facts of life' in a strictly text-book sense, and I longed to try sleeping with him. Maybe it was a childhood spent reading The Morte d'Arthur and teen years immersed in Tolstoy and Dickens, familiarity with Bible stories and conventional churchly morality, as well as a father who might have been living in the previous century when it came to his attitude about his daughter. Whatever it was, I was determined to be a virgin bride. more »

But despite its radical drop in popularity over the course of this century, common-law marriage should not be forgotten. It is a device that still functions as an alternative way to form a marriage – or to claim with hindsight that one was formed in the past. And given the legal significance of marital status, as the determinant of a wide variety of rights and obligations, we forget about common-law marriage at our peril. more »

I took a very old, small, blue and yellow table, covered it in fringed shawls and this is where my laptop sits — the one I use for all writing now. Beside it is The Maeve Binchy Writers’ Club. This is a book that makes us determined to complete our project; I have sent word to her that even before the end of January, almost half of it is already full of my notes for the new novel idea. more »

Among married adults at each education level, men had larger household income increases than did women. Those who gained most of all were married male college graduates, whose household incomes rose 56%, compared with 44% for married female college graduates. more »