Something With a Ring To It

Friday night I ditched a gig for my part-time job in lieu of hanging out with Biker Boy. By the time I got home on my bike after eating ice cream and brownies with a certain somebody, I was kind of grumpy. But I figured that Biker Boy and I would go for a walk around the lake, I would burn off some of the brownie calories, and I would be less grumpy.

While walking, I talked about how the thing with Paul Wolfowitz getting a job at the State Department for a woman he had a romantic relationship with. Whatever, I don't care (okay, I do care, but that's not the point here), but I'm absolutely fascinated by the language used to describe the relationship by the media. Some news sources called her his girlfriend, some say his partner, some say they were romantically involved, some say close companion, and on and on it goes. And I found myself telling Biker Boy that it was sometimes difficult to put a label on our relationship. Because boyfriend and girlfriend sounds so juvenile, like we're in high school and "going steady." Partner makes it sound like some sort of business deal. Companion sounds nice until you think about "paid companions" and you realize that you don't mean that at all. Sure, you can say you're romantically involved, but somehow that seems to be a bit too personal.

Then we got back to Biker Boy's place and he made it quite clear how we will define our relationship from here on out.