The worst thing about living with Stick… well, actually it’s the second worst thing. The very worst is all that compromising garbage that I’m meant to be doing. But the second worst thing is what to call him.

I feel very high-school talking about my boyfriend.

I tried the Amherst lingo “partner”, which does sound a little more mature than boyfriend. But there was a problem with that, too. Using a non-gender-specific term in the happy valley seems to mean something else.

People here just assume we are married, what with the moving to China together and all, which is fine except then someone will ask where my husband is and I’m all “Husband? Husband who?”

Yesterday we were at a business lunch when Stick refered to me as his “lady friend,” to the amusement of everyone around us.

But then my dilemma was solved by a native Chinese speaker at the table. Chinese, for all it’s inability to express “2″ consistantly, has a perfect way to describe a significant other. My that person.