"I just wanted to say" actually means "I wanted to say this thing and also this other thing I’m too afraid to say."

"I just wanted to say nice sweater" actually means "Hey your sweater is quite stylish and also let's go storm-chasing or start a podcast reviewing brands of bubble bath and I just think that would be fun except we must accept right now that in both cases we'll have to get used to editing out silences."

"I just wanted to say you’re a good friend" actually means "My life without your presence would be undeniably dreadful and also if we ever grow apart then I will endlessly post memes of capybaras peeling oranges that somehow read like vague slights at things you never did like clean the godforsaken stovetop and also-also I will send passive aggressive emails when you don’t respond within an arbitrary timeline to questions about the current location of inconsequential objects such as my mug with the ghost on it, that's my favorite mug, where the heck is it, I've checked everywhere PS I miss you."

"I just wanted to say sorry for your loss" actually means "I’m sad to learn someone close to you passed away and also now I’m reminded of people close to me, a dysfunctional burial economy, our eventual decomposition, the external-internal elsewhere we amble about in our day-to-day, all the phone calls silenced, all the strawberry rows planted, all the sweatshirts swapped, and shit now I feel selfish for turning your sorrow into my soapbox and double shit now I feel even stranger for acknowledging my selfish use of your sorrow for my soapbox and unfortunately I could continue on like this but fortunately I won't so how do I undo this awkward tension, I guess I give you a hug, open the door, put on my helmet, get home early."

"I just wanted to say congrats" actually means "I extend my heartiest kudos to you and also it’s natural to feel a tinge of jealousy at all times, right, I’m not overthinking things if anything I’m underthinking what I use to assess anxiety for example what issues arise when measuring liquids in instruments designed for dry ingredients because I made banana bread but it was so demonstrably fucked that all I can say is at least, for a few days, the cardinals were happy as I lingered shirtless in the driveway, them nibbling, me doing the optical equivalent to nibbling which is not a success, or is, depending on objective or maybe subjective as in the bananas didn’t become bread but became a substance resembling bread so closely that the difference is moot, we, the birds and I, indulge in our pathos of stagnant air, soft textures, this system of "barely there"s and "I just wanted to say"s and how wonderful it is seeing you seeing me see the entire honest arrangement of hungry gadgets hunker down, maybe start to figure one or two of these things out."