More Things That Are Lost On Me

I've started to attend Al-Anon, an organization that helps individuals deal with the collateral damage of being exposed to the alcoholism and addiction of loved ones rather than with recovery from these diseases directly.  I'm the only man so far in a group of twenty or twenty-five women.  This is weird in its own right but not off-putting or uncomfortable in any way.  I've heard nothing but good things about Al-Anon over the years, both in its ability to help individuals cope with alcoholism as well as detaching from other people in general.

I didn't cause - I can't cure it - but I can cope.

I've enjoyed the sharing so far, for the most part.  I have been happy to see that most of the dialogue has centered around not letting other people get under your skin and not with specific stories about how to survive some chaotic, violent alcoholic environment.  The funny thing is that I don't let others agitate me overly much in my day to day life, the exception being my home group where a significant cross-section of people are annoying the shit out of me.

I noticed a woman in the meeting fucking around with her cell phone.  This annoyed the shit out of me.  The irony of being annoyed at someone else while at my first meeting of a group that is supposed to help me avoid being annoyed at someone else was not lost on me.  This woman then had the gall to share.  She began by telling the group that she was using her cell phone to make some notes about information that she found particularly helpful.  The irony of being annoyed at someone who wasn't doing the thing that I find annoying was also not lost on me.

Pretty much everything else was lost on me, though.