Yesterday, my friend Leo asked me what it was like to live with someone.

We have this chalkboard in the kitchen. When we moved in together, my dad got us a gift certificate to Fishs Eddy, a kitchen store that we both wished had had actual kitchen appliances, and pots and pans, but really just had colorful plates and novelty cups and transparent butter trays. After we bought a few plates, we didn’t really know how to spend the rest of the gift certificate, so we bought one of everything. A bar tender’s guide to drinks. A mixer. A strainer. An ice cream scoop. Coasters. And a little chalkboard.

We use the chalkboard for grocery lists, and sometimes drawings. But mostly grocery lists so far. It’s on the wall in the kitchen, and when we think of things to buy, we add them to the list. It’s a really small chalkboard, so maybe a piece of paper would be more practical, but definitely not as cute or romantic. I may have had the thought, “This is totally something Monica and Rachel would have had,” which is probably why I bought it in the first place.

This morning, he left for work around 8, and I woke up at 8:30. I brushed my teeth, put a bagel in the oven (We don’t have a toaster. Or a microwave. Because Fishs Eddy doesn’t sell them.) and put some coffee in the pour-over Chemex thing my boyfriend’s brother got him for his birthday. I noticed the coffee had probably been ground for a french press, meaning it was really coarse. This is just something I’ve picked up from working as a barista. Coarse = water drains faster. This is good in a french press. This doesn’t work so well for let’s say, espresso, or something with a paper filter. If the coffee’s too coarse, the water just runs right though it and doesn’t pick up enough flavor. “I’m so clever about coffee,” I thought to myself, as I was thinking about coffee this morning.

So I took a piece of chalk, and started to write on the chalkboard, “Grind coffee finer,” when I saw he had already written it. The exact same words. My chalk piece hovered over his lower-case g.

So, to answer your question Leo, that’s what it’s like to live with someone. All of that is exactly what it’s like to live with someone.