Since I moved in with my very dear and close friend last year, our friendship has become even dearer and closer than ever before. We share the mundane details of our work life, our family and romantic foibles, and our foodstuffs. We came through the anxiety and joy of the 2008 election and a nasty bout of mono that affected both of us and our respective boyfriends at the time,* and have both developed an unhealthy obsession with the kids at Degrassi High.Soo it happens… all the things that come with spending a lot of time with another person. You end up together in a lot of shared photos on social networking sites, you have a constant stream of inside jokes,** and you can often tell what the other person is thinking before she says it.So naturally, the people from my high school who I’ve befriended on Facebook think we are a couple. At least 3 random people have assumed as much on separate occasions. Including one hair styling apprentice who met us both on the street and recruited me to come in as a hair model for a style he needed to practice, whom I didn’t have the heart (or guts) on the day of the appointment to tell he was mistaken. I spent the entire 2 hour appointment spinning yarns about our fab Lesbian life, which was not that different from our fab non-Lesbian life, as it turns out: We both work at non-profit orgs, we met in college and have been living together for two years. I just conveniently left out the part that we both also on occasion have sex with men and not with each other. (I did feel terrible about lying. But got a damn good haircut and gave him a terrific review on Yelp.)

R. is endlessly amused by this, and having given it a lot of thought, I am quite pleased by it. Because it is very heartening to see we can create a functioning adult household as roommates; that our civilization’s fixation on strictly nuclear-family units can be happily subverted and got around. The fact that we are NOT a couple (in the romantic sense, at least) ensures our household chores are shared more equally than any married couple I’ve ever met. So go ahead, world, assume what you will, I will continue to take it as a compliment.

*Though R. did bear the brunt of it while we only had mild cases.
**For instance, R, her boyfriend and myself marauding around as the tricycle of fury.