Last night, I got into a fight with my Dad. But before I elaborate any further, let me give you the backstory first. For the past week, one of our cars has been in repair, so naturally, we could'nt use it. Since all of us in the family drove to work, a car in repair meant one of us would not be able to drive and would thus have to ride to work with the others. That meant that I would have to ride to work with my Dad. This wasnt really a problem for me since I regularly rode to school with my Dad back when I was in college. He would drop me off in the MRT station and I would be on my way. Going home, I would take the MRT back and he would pick me up in the mall or some pre-agreed location. Ever since I started working, our set-up changed and I was hitching a ride with him less frequently. So yesterday was really no different from the past days.

I got off from work last night a bit later than usual. I informed my dad of this ahead of time by texting him. Texting was another part of our usual set-up. Text if you get to the office, text if you're about to leave the office, text if you're gonna be late. So I did this minor task and went about my work at the office. I left the office at around 6:40. Now if you knew my family, then you would you that we have a pretty much time-bound structure. Leave work by 6, get home by 7, have dinner by 7:30, and so on. Naturally, since it was almost 7, and I was still in the office, then our schedules would have to get moved back. But since I informed my Dad ahead of time, I thought that there wasnt really gonna be a problem. But if you knew me, you would know that one of my major pet peeves is being late. As much as possible, I didnt want to go home late or be late for that matter. So I tried my best to hurry home from work. Instead of walking to the train station, which I normally did when I leave on time, I tried to take a cab. But since the traffic during rush hour was terrible, I ended up walking anyway. So I walked to the train station, took the MRT, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I wasnt that late. Initially I was 40 minutes late in leaving but I managed to cut it down to 25 minutes when I got to my destination.

Now another back story. Last monday, when I was again fetched by my dad, he picked me up at a place we never pre-agreed on in the morning. As I told you earlier, we usually have agreed pick-up points. So here I was, coming from the MRT, taking my leisurely walk to our agreed upon pick-up point in the mall, when suddenly my dad gives me a ring to tell me to go to another location, and to hurry up because he was waiting in a no-waiting zone! This naturally caught me off-guard, so I hurried to the new pick-up point. This location did turn out to be a no-waiting zone, and whats worse, the stoplight just turned green. So the car was keeping the traffic from moving. So I jogged to the car and opened the door, and once I stepped in, my dad said, "You better hurry up, we might get caught by the police because its a no-waiting zone." Why did he frickin have to wait in the no-waiting zone in the first place! Let me mention that another pet peeve of mine is being inconvenienced by getting on or getting off places you're not supposed to. For example, having to get off the car when you're in the middle of the road during a stoplight, or getting on a car while its moving because the area is a no-loading zone. I really, really abhor doing this because in these instances, i'm not in control of the situation and there are other external factors that add to the tension like the cars behind you are honking like crazy, or that traffic enforcer is giving you the look that you did something wrong and is itching to pull you over. But since I was in good spirits last Monday, I let this one slide.

Back to yesterday. My dad did it again. He texted me that he was in another location and that I should hurry up since it was again, a no-waiting zone. Already feeling irritated, because I was late, and I was tired from work, and I had to walk like crazy to get home, I called him up to tell him that I was already near our agreed location. My damn phone didnt cooperate with us last night as well, as I couldnt receive any calls and automatically rejected whoever calls me. As it turned out, both of us were already irritated because he tried to call me twice to no avail. So I was walking to the new pick-up point when suddenly this car honks at me from nowhere, and its our car, right in front of the stoplight that just turned green. This wasnt even the location and my dad is there, honking at me to get in the car, with the other cars behind us impatiently honking their horns. So the pressure and tension of the situation just reached an all-time high at that point, and everything went haywire. Horns honking all around, green light glaring, I ran to the car, opened the front door, turns out my brother was there, closed the front door, opened the back door, closed the door on my Ipod earphones and left it dangling right outside the car. I just completely lost it afterwards!! I started cursing under my breath and tugging on my earphones to no avail. This was when all hell broke loose. I engaged into an intense shouting match with my Dad that lasted about 2 minutes. I think that this was the first heated argument that i've had with him in a long while, and probably one of the worst.

My emotions got the best of me, and I regretted doing it afterwards. But if you knew me well, I have a lot of pride in myself, and you wouldnt get me to apologize that easy, especially when I know I'm right. In this case, I think my reasons for blowing my top off was right. In case you beg to disagree. I think I share the same trait with my Dad in this aspect. But the good thing is, I did feel guilty afterwards, and I felt my anger dissipate. I've been trying to practice anger management lately by trying to stop my anger immediately. It worked to certain extent last night as I didnt feel any more anger once I got home. But the sad thing is, I still havent spoken to my dad since last night. Theres no anger, I think its just pride taking over at this point. Plus think he was also shocked at my outburst last night. I always believe that a child has no right to get mad at his parents. And God knows how much I love my parents and put them in high esteem. But sometimes, these arguments can be healthy, I think.

This post has rambled on forever. I just had to get this out of my system. I want to have a good day today.