Last week with my step son we drove to Cincinnati for a 90th birthday celebration of a friend of my wife's. OK, whatever. The first event was a dinner of sorts at some pretty mundane restraurant in their patio, fortunately the weather was nice. I'd guess there were 60 people crowded into the space. The birthday boy gave a speech, a long speech, and hardly anyone listened. I could hear he was talking but not what he was saying because everyone else was talking at the same time, the noise level was bothersome to me, I'm a bit sensitive to loud noises. Anyway, I sat at the table and had a couple glasses of pretty awful white wine and a plate from their "buffet", no big deal. I said nothing, again because of the noise level. People kept rearranging the seating at the table bringing more tables over, so I constantly had to get up and shift my chair. So, I'm not in a good mood, and my wife knows it. A few people I didn't know tried to ask me something, I couldn't make it out unless they screamed in my ear, all while birthday boy is droning on about something. This sort of event is entirely something I abhor.
The next day, the event was a brunch with a "smaller group" and dude's condo, I told my wife I couldn't make it. She later told me I made a good choice. Then that afternoon was a riverboat cruise to watch the fireworks, I told my wife I wasn't going even though she had paid $500 for the ticket, which amazed me. So, I stayed in the two bedroom loft my step son had rented, and walked over to a Kroger downtown to get some food. This was in the OTR area of Cincy which is ... interesting.
I'm told Birthday Boy made another long speech on the boat, this time apparently folks quieted down a bit. My wife said he rambled. This fellow is the only of her friends I actively dislike, I dislike very few people, I do ignore others I don't particularly care to around, but dislike? Not often.
Then we drove back. Amidst the group was our friends from France who I do like, and their daugher and her husband I don't recall ever meeting. The father was the CEO of my wife's company and she worked directly for him and he is a very interesting fellow, as is his wife. They drove down to ATL to stay near us and visited for dinner which turned out to be enough to compensate for the silliness above, I really enjoyed that. The daughter probably wondered how I could be so sullen at their party and so lively and engaged at our dinner. So, that part worked out fine. And my two kids are coming in Friday for my birthday, so that will be fun, probably.
