Family reunion

Diep and Megan returned to Hanoi last Friday night... late. I was happy to see them and they seemed happy to see me. The weekend went fairly well, but Megan didn't want to go to school this morning. I think she was just exhausted from all the travel and time with her maternal relatives. Hopefully she will get back into it this week. She will take a school trip to Hue and Hoi An in early March and I think she will really enjoy it.

Of course, Saturday everything was great because Diep hadn't seen me in a week, but by Sunday I think I started to annoy her. Ironically, I annoy her with the things I can't help or do anything about. Two summers ago I got a pretty serious ear infection that, in my opinion, led to serious hearing loss. I can't even hear what is being said on the TV when Diep has it set at a "comfortable" level for her. Twice this weekend she made a comment that I couldn't hear and she started berating me for it. Of course, she doesn't blame my hearing loss on the ear infection, she blames it on my listening to the IPOD with the earplugs in, which I haven't done in over a year because of the ringing in my ear. I asked her not to make fun of me for that as it is no different than if I had lost my arm to an infection or accident. She doesn't buy it, but this is something that is going to start to annoy me pretty soon.

Besides that little dispute I have going at home, I have this thing with a co-worker, too. This particular co-worker I have decided I would not socialize with when alcohol is involved because he has this Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde thing going on. With the last days of the lunar new year, I decided to forego my "rule" and have a couple of drinks with him and a couple other friends. It got pretty ugly and now I find myself thinking too much about the things he said. Some things I can disregard completely because even if he was sincere in his observation, it just isn't true. I mostly found what he said offensive. Probably out his need to feel superior and partly out of his insecurities. While he probably views me as a threat to his self-perceived alpha status, I really don't find a need to compete with him. Not really having the time or inclination to go into details in this forum, I will just leave it as this: I will not be socializing with this guy again when alcohol is involved. And, on the brighter side, I had just enough juice in me to robustly defend myself and get in a couple of barbs that should have stung as well. What really sucks about this whole thing is that I do respect this guy professionally more than anyone else in the business. Too bad his insecurities and arrogance get in the way of me liking him personally, anymore.

Having re-read this post, it looks like my age is catching up with me. I feel like I am getting curmudgeonly (yes, I had to look up the spelling) with age and I hope that isn't true. I think I just need to defend myself more and apologize less.