I'm Old

I think I'm turning into my mom. Or my eldest daughter is turning into me. Or I'm just, plain and simple, growing old.

Alex loves music. In fact, she cannot sleep without her Ipod, or something playing on her cellphone or my laptop. She listens mostly to rock music - something I loved listening to when I was a teenager, something she'll be in two years.

That thought already makes me feel ancient. But I start to see myself as an historic artifact everytime I find myself turning the laptop's volume down, down, down, down to maybe three bars. Paramore or Queen or My Chemical Romance or Slipknot (yes, my baby listens to Slipknot, a band I just recently learned about through her) or Metallica - they're all the same to me now - noisy. Yes, I'm old. I'm a relic!

But when I was in high school, I'd play Gene Loves Jezebel or U2 or The Cure or whatever band I was into then on maximum volume. I remember my mom irritated, pleading with me to turn the volume down. Sometimes my dad would chime in, "That's not music. That's noise."

And that is exactly what I tell Alex now. "No, it's not. It's music. I love it," she'd say.

So I give in, just as my parents did before, and wait for Alex to fall asleep before I turn the music off.

Aaahhh... The deafening sound of the aircon's hum. Peace and quiet at last.