When I was 22, I was invited to dinner by MikeGatti, his dad, and his mom's replacement. The food was enjoyable; the conversation was not. I was talking about a book I'd read recently, and Mike said he should make me a T-shirt that just said "Read". His dad said there were worse sayings to live by, and they started bickering. I was dumb (didn't recognize emotion-based argumentation) and started arguing with them. At which point Mike called me "patronizing", and it went downhill from there.

So here I am, years later, and I can now see that Mike was still pissed at his father for screwing over his family. This incident put a chill on my friendship with Mike, which hasn't really recovered. If I'd been smarter, earlier, this wouldn't have happened. All I can do now is try to patch things up.

When I was in 6th grade, my parents divorced. My dad asked me if I wanted to see someone about it, and I said no. Why would I want a big red sign pointing to my head that said "Here's the broken kid that caused this mess". You know, I thought I dropped that sign in 6th grade, but I've been holding that damn sign ever since.