Here we are, end of the month, and while I did not under-spend as much as I did the previous month, I still only spent maybe 60% of my monthly budget?  Staying below budget is important to me until I can get to age 60 at least, which is another 8 years away.  That's still quite a way, and what I do now matters significantly on what happens to me down the road.  The butterfly effect I guess.

Once again, my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for not only being able to stay on my own FIRE course, but I'm also glad my life is not filled with so much crazy drama.  But before I even try to explain what has happened this month, let me first attach some names to avoid any confusion.  I hope.

Tom - My friend that's going through divorce.
Sabrina - My friend that is or was dating Robert, I have no idea what their status is right now.
Robert - The boyfriend or ex-bf that is dating Sabrina.
Kevin - A mutual friend of Robert and Sabrina.

Got it?  Clear as mud?  Great.  Oh, and let me just also say that none of these are their real names.  Anyway, let's start from the top:

So, Tom is finally divorced and met a new lady already.  I finally met her earlier this month, and by all accounts, she seems very sweet and intelligent, and I am happy for the both of them.  While Tom is finally divorced, his ex-wife is still dragging him through the mud with child custody details.  Latest chapter on this is that their lawyers asked them to use a certain messenger app to communicate, that basically allows all parties involved to keep an eye the words being exchanged, to basically avoid any further he said/she said.   Well, she refuses, stating repeatedly that, "I don't have access."  Instead, she insists on a different app that even her lawyer did not approve.  When pressed for further details, she just keeps repeating, "I don't have access." and that's it.  So that's fun.

Tom is still mired in quite a bit of legal debt because of all this, though I fear that his two beautiful children are the biggest victims in all this.  He still works like a dog, but understandably, money is still tight, and cherry on top, he's trying to date this nice new woman.  I usually treat him to lunch whenever we meet up, and perhaps due to desperation or something, he's also starting to invite me to all kinds of events or whatever, more than what what we normally do.  Like inviting me to his children's play time at the small amusement park, passively hoping I'll take pity and help cover his charges there as well?  It's a very awkward situation, so I've been saying no to those now.  Tom is a good guy though, he's just going through a rough patch.

Next, Sabrina is a single mom of two who works full time while also taking care of his ailing mother and brother.  She also has a son who is born mentally handicapped somehow?  She also has a deadbeat ex-husband who not only refuses to pay child support, but somehow make it sound like all this is her fault or something.  Completely ridiculous, but they're divorced now so that's nice.

Because Sabrina has so much on her plate, but is actually a decent human being, I took pity on her once and footed the bill to buy her son a stroller.  To clarify, it's not just any stroller.  While they call it a stroller, it's more like a heavy duty wheelchair designed for handicapped children.  While it's the ideal choice, those things are not cheap at all!  Because Sabrina isn't rich, she was mulling over getting some cheap wagon that is not designed for children to sit in.  What if her son falls out or hits his head on the wagon frame?  Also, he will eventually out-grow the wagon some day, requring her to buy an even bigger one down the road.  The stroller wheelchair, on the other hand, is specifically designed with growing children in mind, handles like up to 200lbs (90kg), and still provides robust neck and head support, regardless of the child's height.

So yeah, I bought it for her.  Why not?  Nobody asks to be born handicapped, and she's a struggling mom that's trying to take care of everybody else.  And the stroller wheelchair makes way more sense than the alternatives.  Unfortunately though, I think she's started to take a liking to me.  But I'm like what about Robert?  You know, the guy you've been dating this entire time?  Don't you think you should work things out with him instead?  So awkward....  Since then, I have been avoiding Sabrina as much as possible, even though we still talk from time to time, just to say hi, how are you and all that.

Speaking of Robert, we're more like a friends of a friend, through Sabrina.  He's nice and polite enough to me and vice versa.  However, I have also always sensed that he was a bit insecure about Sabrina and I being friends.  I'm like dude you have nothing to worry about.  I told him before that my ex-wife cheated on me, so I know what that feels like.  It all seemed fine until one day, out of nowhere, he starts hitting me up for money.  Is it because he knows I bought Sabrina that expensive wheelchair, and he thinks I have money too?  Later on, I found out that he was either let go of a job, or quit or something, and money became really tight for him.  He has his own set of struggles at his house, though I am not aware of the specifics.  While I sympathize, I do, I can't just be handing out money left and right.

Also, this would make it kind of an awkward situation because I think part of the reason why Sabrina is still with him is because he has always been giving her some money every month, to try to show what a helpful and valuable man he is to her.  But if I give Robert money, and then he gives it to Sabrina, will he tell her that the money actually came from me?  Or does he just keep his mouth shut and make it sound more like it's coming from him?  Maintain his perceived value in Sabrina's eyes, right?  Really awkward situation there.  You two please sort it out amongst yourselves, OK?  My name is Paul and this is between y'all!

All this leads to the friend of a friend named Kevin, who turns out to be a bit of a liar or even con artist.  Now, in my defense, he's also been very nice to me this entire time, so I had no reason to doubt him.  However, while trying to impress Sabrina, he claims to be the son of this Asian aristocratic family.   The kind that sends their kids to study abroad at some private school in Switzerland, and family used to have a private jet that they would use whenever they wanted lunch in France and dinner in Italy.

Thinking that was such an interesting background, I asked him privately about it one night.  To let him know I'm not after him or his family's money, I told him I was not poor so there is nothing to worry about.  However, he actually confided in me that while it was true for a few years, his family hit some kind of financial crash or something, and he was pulled back home as they couldn't afford any of that anymore.  So you know partially true at best, but still a lie by omission of important details.  Since then, we didn't talk much anymore, since I don't like liars, and he wasn't interested in my anyways, but Sabrina.

So, imagine my surprise, when suddenly, out of the blue, Kevin asked Sabrina how to get in contact with me again.  Why though, right?  Though we've always been friendly, we were never friends, and the only thing we can think of is maybe he finally got fired or quit from his job at the airport, and now, maybe he wants to hit me up for money too?  I am not sure, but it's the only explantion I can think.  Sabrina also told me Kevin's best friend is some kind of big time con artist, so yeah a big, fat NOPE to all that!

At the same time, for some inscrutable reason, Robert is trying to get in contact with Tom.  Also why?  That's so weird because while Robert and Tom have met in passing before, it's not like they've ever really sat down and talked to each other or anything.  Is it because Robert is now trying to find dirt or details about me through Tom?  Sabrina is also trying to find out what's going on with that, but somehow, I doubt that Robert will actually tell her.  It's been a weird month.

So to recap, Tom is divorced and I think tried to get me to help him pay for his children's entertainment, Sabrina is professing interest in me even though she's still with Robert.  Robert has always been insecure about other guys, including me, but asked me for money anyway even though he might just give it to Sabrina without telling her that the money came from me, Kevin is suddenly trying to get in touch with me again, even though we haven't talked for nearly a year, but is the only person on the list that kind of knows that I have money.

HMMM YES THAT SURE IS ONE FINE DRAMA LLAMA YOU GOT THERE.  A SHAME I WILL NEVER KNOW HOW IT RIDES BECAUSE NO THANKS!