sunday morning.

i think that at 27, it sounds really ridiculous to say the word “boyfriend”.  calling him the boy started at the very very beginning of what would become a relationship, when it seemed so implausible and new that i determined he hadn’t earned a name yet.  he went into my cell phone as the boy, and was discussed with everyone else as the boy.  and, a year and a half later, it’s still there.   i mean, he has well earned a name, for sure, but i am still referred to as the girl.

but, introducing him to new people in this town, i can’t really say that he is the boy.   however, when i introduce him as my boyfriend, i feel like i am about 17 years old again.  this apparently is mentioned in the sex and the city movie, where carrie says she could introduce her boyfriend as her man-friend, to which he replies that that makes him sound like a dog.

so i’m stuck.  not the boy, not the boyfriend, not the man-friend.  we need a new word.  we had a similar problem earlier in the relationship, surrounding the word ‘love’.  we were careful not to bandy it around, but it got pretty ridiculous to keep saying “i like you enormously”.  we needed a new word.

we never found it.  so, after awhile, he blurted it out in dramatic fashion right before i got in the car to leave, a four and a half hour drive home.

and i, of the expansive vocabulary, am at a loss for what this new word would be.

why am i telling you this?

because right now, he is in the kitchen making me pancakes on this sunday morning, and we are about to listen to the mars hill sermon on podcast, and drink orange juice on the couch.  last night we went to see a strange but perfectly appropriate for our mood movie, and then for the auntie pasta and hot drinks at shuga’s until late.

i really love my boyfriend.

and when this feeling seeps over you, in palpable waves on a november sunday morning, you should say it.

but i need a new word.