Help! I've Turned Into Meredith Palmer

When you get to know me, you will learn a few things really quickly:

* I've been married and divorced twice

* I'm very honest, tearful and upfront with my mistakes and triumphs of the past

* I'm witty and funny AF

I recently applied for a promotion with my company, and one of the ways I proved I was organized and good at follow-up was mentioning that I served as my own attorney at my last divorce proceeding. I saved an s-ton of money by filling all my paperwork, getting to know the lovely ladies in my county's Clerk of Court office and representing myself in court on the day the divorce was granted.

When I walked out of that courthouse, I was sad for the failure of a second marriage. However, I was proud and feeling my oats for having navigated the people, the paperwork and the sometimes overbearing oppressiveness of our state laws for divorce and separation. I knew, just like I knew when my son as diagnosed with autism, that if I could survive this I could survive anything.

And guess what, y'all? I did.

Now I love to joke about my circumstances and have basically created my own sitcom character. I'm the middle-aged admin single mom who's been married and divorced and can neither decide on or keep a man. I'm a scream! Basically, I'm Meredith. But without all the drinking. And the nudity. And the overall weirdness. Okay, maybe I'm not Meredith at all!

Maybe I've become a woman who describes a lot of us though: older, a little wiser, definitely stronger, fiercely independent, refusing to settle but still with a squishy marshmallow-center heart who still wants to believe in love, romance and the ever-elusive soulmate.

So when you meet a lady like me/Meredith, don't be too quick to judge. While you're running around in your high-waisted jeans and white ankle boots with the world by the ass, just remember, you could be us someday. But only if you're really lucky.

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