I love you Kate

Taking on the label of girlfriend is not quite as easy at is sounds – like with any great label worth owning, careful planning must happen before any action is taken. Take for example buying a car; once you have settled on the model, color, and leather interior, you must then negotiate the best price (or at least think you did), they will then pry into your credit history and wonderful FICO, and they will ask you to sign and commit away the next 60 months of your life. Similarly, the same headaches can happen when planning to acquire that new LV monogram; how much can I afford to put down in cash money, how much can I charge on my Macy’s card till I reach my credit limit, can the remaining balance fit on my Visa, and last, how can I save face in front of the sales person? Careful planning indeed must happen before taking on any new label worth possessing.

So where am I at in acquiring my new label of GF. (Side note, GF is the new girlfriend, kapish?) Well, to be completely honest, I am still in the early stages of this planning process. Overcoming my objections to that particular label was only step one. Step two, much more complicated, which ironically, is the label he and I have gone with for the last 6 years.

I am getting riddled w/ the “are you married/dating/in a relationship/have any kids/do you have a boyfriend” questions ever since starting my new job – your marital status are among the first questions to come up don’tcha know? My answer to one of those pesky questions last week came off less than clear – “I have a relationship in Minne.” She looked at me quizzically, like what does that mean? “Um, a sort boyfriend, I guess”. Later that day I decided to bring up the label thing to Big one more time. He was slightly curious and slightly annoyed that I was bringing it up a second time. I mean, the first time he said that “um, well, yeah, okay, whatever, um, if you want to consider me your boyfriend, then yes, okay, I’m your boyfriend”. I am sure this is not unusual, a guy feeling uncomfortable saying labels…it took Big forever to feel comfortable saying “I love you”, and now he does it with great frequency and with great ease (in fact he puts me to shame in this category). So the BF/GF thing will take him some time to warm to I’m sure. I think most importantly is that he does think of me that way, and is willing to concede on that label issue if it is what I want. Which it is something I want for sure, but step two in my planning is going to take some time, because as some of my readers may be wondering, there is still one big obstacle that I need to remove before he and I are able to move forward in any true sense that the BF/GF label suggests. And fear not, I will get there very soon.

Yesterday during a regular conversation on the phone, Big said, “I love you Kate (well, I always wanted to be named Kate), I love you Kate, I am so lucky to have you.” He is lucky and I am lucky.