Do you ever sit down to a group dinner at a busy restaurant and have trouble hearing the person across the table from you?
You're suffering from the early stages of deafness. Do something about it.
I wear earplugs when I go out to clubs, especially out here in Asia where the music is disturbingly loud.
No, it's not as weird as you imagine, and yes I can hear you when you are screaming at me trying to speak on the dance floor. In fact, I can hear you better than without them in my ears because the earplugs filter out all the music and background noise.
If I'm dragged to a club after a dinner when I was just expecting to go home and am caught without my earplugs, I find it absolutely unbearable now. In desperation, I'll ball up tissue paper and stuff them in my ears.
Plus, the girls dig it.