5 HOW TO SURVIVE DATING

I met Ella about twenty years ago. She was singing at a house party in Nottingham, England, shaking a tambourine to an acoustic version of Coldplay's "Yellow," as a roomful of people cheered her on. Petite, with long, straight black hair and an edgy, hippie style, Ella was very much the opposite of me—blond, conservatively dressed, and hopelessly lacking in musical talent. Our meeting occurred through a fortunate circumstance; she was casually dating a friend of my husband's, and she and the other half of her acoustic duo would play impromptu gigs at group gatherings. But over the past couple of decades, our friendship has deepened, and I have been an eager observer of her fascinating life.