Our meeting with the producers for our Big Gala ran late yesterday and therefore I missed my bus.  I bummed a ride with the Producers, husband and wife team who live a few miles from me, and the Video Guy.

Of course, we chat all the way home about this and that and those.  And it came down to where I came from and who all else is back home.

“My dad and my brothers are still in Bangkok,” I said.  And then we launched into another conversation.

But when I said it, it was a strange thing to say.  My dad and my brothers.  I was hoping that the lack of mom mentioned in that would blow over.  But it didn’t.

“So, where is your mom?” the Producer Wife asked eventually.

This marks the first time I had to tell someone, “My mom passed away in August.”

And it was the weirdest thing out of my mouth.

So far, I have only been around people I know.  And people I know already knew.  The new friends I made, El Heffe and Lee, were there when it happened.  And the newest drinking buddies I made at a recent outting need not get into personal stuff.

I realize this is going to be the first of many times I will have to say “My mom passed away in August [this many years ago]” down the road as I meet new people along the way.

Definitely a growing pain all human has to experience sometimes.  But it’s not easy when it’s this fresh.