FWIW (and this may confuse things), your tone does not come across as particularly b!tchy to me. Your tone seems assertive and forthright (a refreshing change of pace from the poor-me, victim tone that one often encounters), and I'm really not getting a big chip-on-the-shoulder thing. You sound like you're at that place that my late husband used to describe (he was a pilot), "I'm out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas."
