Love is like this.
Here’s the thing about me and W. When one of us is down, the other is usually up. We are the lesbian equivalent of a teeter-totter.
It’s a good thing, because the person at the top usually says, “hey, lean on me. I’ve got this. I’ve got you.”
We are yin and yang. Quiet and not-so quiet. Captain (me) and Tennille (her). I’m a hard, crunchy, salty tortilla chip, and she is smooth, hot cheese. Damn.
Love is like this, too.
But lately we’ve both been up. We’ve been focusing on ourselves and our personal goals. So that teeter-totter is more like a hot air balloon with a basket for two. The sky is the limit.
I must admit, it has me a little bit worried. This new dynamic. Because it’s different.
But right now, I’m loving it. I like having a partner who is doing and growing and giving me space to do the same. It’s incredibly sexy, if you ask this butch lesbian.
Not that we don’t ease each other’s burdens in this new phase of mutual personal growth. Just the other night, W sorted through a whole bin of paper recycling in search of an important piece of paper that I had lost.
“It’s my job to help you,” she said.
I wasn’t going to argue. Besides, this butch is working on accepting help.
And then she noticed that the some of the papers were damp with cat pee. Because our cats are evil.
“Stop,” I said. “I’ll do it later.”
But she kept right on going.
“You’ve got a good woman there,” I thought to myself.
If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
(In a middle-age blunder, Middle Age Butch later discovered that she had not thrown out the important paper after all.)
* * *
What about your love relationship? Are you two a teeter-totter or hot air balloon? Would your partner root through a bin of pee-tainted paper for you?
The Flannel Files 
These are both good analogies for love. If we’re lucky (as I have been) we get to experience both. And yes, he would “root through a bin full of pee-tainted paper for me.” I would do the same for him–but I would put on gloves first.
That pee thing. That’s when you know it’s true love.
I like your stories of love dynamics. Once, I was sorting through a bin of recyclables, and in doing so learned that my future partner had feelings for me, so yeah, basically the same thing as rooting through cat-pee paper!
We were housemates, and I had a crush on her. I was on garbage duty that week and thought I had to sort the paper from the plastic (later realized you don’t). I came upon a rough draft of a letter she was writing to a friend, and, yep, I couldn’t stop myself from reading it. I think we would have ended up together eventually, but this bit of knowledge sped up the process exponentially!
Love and garbage. Who knew there was such a connection? At least you have an interesting story as to how the two of you got together. Thanks for reading and commenting.
We are in teeter phase at present – both of us stressed with work. When the stress gets too much for one of us, the other steps in and helps in whatever way possible. It may be just a relaxing bath and massage, or simply making a difficult ‘phone call because the other half has spent all week making difficult calls… either way it works for us. After almost 14 years together we know one another’s moods and can swing one another up (and sometimes down…!) if needs be. I know what you mean about the balloon phase, we have that sometimes too – and its great but like you say feels a bit weird, like a new shoe.
Im not sure about going through documents that a cat has pee’d on – if we had a cat she might… But she will take our dogs out for a walk in the dark in the rain so that I don’t have to – just because she thinks I need a break – and then make sure they are all dry (no mean feat if you saw the dogs…) before bringing them back into the house… now that’s commitment!
That’s what it’s all about. Picking each other up. Walking the dogs, picking up pizza on the way home, cleaning up the cat puke (yes, we have a lot of cat issues) . . .
Baw, this is a cute post. And no, my girlfriend wouldn’t go through a cat pee infested box for me…that’d be me doing it for her. X_x
Thanks for reading. In every relationship, there is one who will root through the cat pee. It’s a law of nature or something like that.