When my dad died, I made many new friends because we had just moved to Los Angeles (albeit seven years before) and our kid was in kindergarten and we had to be social and I needed new friends since we had left New York because my dad was sick. I spent seven years focused on my family and didn’t have time for friends. So when my dad died, I finally made some.
For a few months, whenever I met someone new I would tell them immediately “My dad died.” Like it was this essential piece of information they had to know about me - that to know me was to know I was now incomplete, inconsolable, broken, because my dad died. I was not THE SAME. They had missed out on the me who knew what happiness was.
And now because my husband has put me on a budget I have been going to lunches and dinners and meetings and I will randomly blurt out, I AM ON A BUDGET!!! Like it is this essential piece of information they have to know about me, because I am now incomplete, not quite all there, not quite the MELNESSS of MEL because I AM ON A BUDGET!!!!!
Being on a budget SUCKS. I HATE IT. I tell my husband every day I HATE YOU AND I HATE THE BUDGET.