It's hard when you have to leave a job and don't go on to another. I had that happen too when I retired, still sort of identify with the last job but don't have anything in front of me at the moment I can latch onto. I still e-mail back and forth with my previous coworkers, etc. and hear what people are saying about me and all that.

Were you thinking of trying to get your old job back again? Your ex-friend must see you as a threat somewhere to be going to that extreme. It reminds me of when I was trying to teach my non-English T the word "ornery" as it applies to me :-) and she decided to try it in a sentence a bit later only it came out sounding like "ordinary". I told her "I'm lots of things but 'ordinary' isn't one of them"