Life is not a storybook fairy tale

The fall colors of the forest reflecting in the water, the ripples looking like the brush strokes of a Van Gough painting. The trees behind offering many shades of every fall color, from purples and reds to oranges and yellows. Two swans held still in the sands of time by the picture were graceful and crisp on the colorful water. Dani sat on the edge of her bed in her new apartment staring at the sceen on her computer, absorbing the fact that she was on her own again.

She had moved just last weekend, getting away from her latest mistake. It was her third marriage and it has lasted only two months and ten days, not counting the whirlwind courtship of six months.. The signs were all there well before she said the words "I do", but since that didn't seem to be enough to change her mind before she said them, the heavens sent a clear message about thirty minutes after she said them. It was in the form of a freak hailstorm that hit the neighborhood with a vengence and covered everything in a sea of white hailstones ranging in size from peas to baseballs. The "honeymoon" that followed didn't have even a hint of the sweet honey that she had hoped to find with her new husband, nor did it offer much hope of a fairy tale life of happiness that every little girl thinks she is going to find. She had tired of beating herself up for jumping into this relationship too quickly and had moved onto finding her way out of it with just as much quickness.

Her picker was broken, that seemed an appropriate excuse for her being in this situation again, but this time she knew differently. It all came back to chasing those stupid storybook fairy tales, it was too irrisistable not to believe that her prince charming was going to come ride up and sweep her away into a storybook ending. But age had brought a bit more wisdom this go round and she began to look at this problem from a different angle. ...