My youngest brother is on my last nerve. He needs some anger management because the simplest things cause him to fly way off the handle and it’s nearly impossible to be around him. No one WANTS to because he’s got such a negative attitude about everything whether it’s his self esteem because clothes don’t fit, his abilities to play a sport, finishing his homework, etc.. it’s all a big chore that I dread hearing about because the effects are always negative. Clothes are the absolute worst though. The only thing that is easy to buy for him are skate shoes because they fit and don’t cause any angst. It’s a rinse and repeat on a daily basis that is very tiring on one’s mental well being at times. I don’t envy my mother having to deal with it all. Hopefully once summer hits he’ll be a little less edgy all the time. I hope so anyways. It gets old hearing “I’m stupid” or I’m fat” all the time. I just went through this explaining fractions to him. I think I feel a headache coming on. ugh.

I often get told that I look like my youngest brother to which I reply “I was here first, remember?” So in actuality he looks like me. Our faces are quite similar everybody says. Sometimes you don’t want to admit that you and your sibling look alike just… well because. It’s all in the face and body structure. My other brother and I don’t look alike I don’t think but they look alike… if that makes sense. We’ve got bigger frames, round faces, and similar eyes and smiles. I think we all lucked out when it comes to skin, none of us ever breakout and I’m thankful I’ve never had to look into getting acne treatment. The worst thing I get is a zit maybe around my period, just one.

Next month is father’s day. Like I said, time is really speeding up. It’s also dad’s birthday next month as well. It’s not really a big deal honestly because birthdays get boring once you get older. I never know what to buy him because he doesn’t really do too much outside of work, reading his paper, and the occasional game of solitaire on the computer. I could maybe look into titanium rings but I’m not quite sure he’d wear one. He doesn’t even wear his wedding band but he could’ve lost that. Maybe I’ll just stick with getting him his favorite kind of food or something.

During the spring and summer my dad spends HOURS in the garden doing everything from the planting to weeding to tilling the ground to make it loose for planting. He even gets fertilizer from the farm to make things grow better. Sometimes he’ll just sit out there in his little sanctuary. All month long my mom has bought various plants and seeds for him to get his itch going. I think some that she’s got are watermelon, corn, potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, lettuce, other kinds of squash, peppers.. god knows what else. He’s a nut when it comes to them and often we have tons of stuff at the end of the season we can’t even eat because the quantity is so large. I’ve heard that in greenhouses they use high pressure sodium lights to make things grow faster but I think even if my dad had the option he’d stick with his method of using natural sunlight and all that good stuff. Why take away his enjoyment you know? Granted he plants at work for weeks since they’re doing all the corn right now but whatever floats his boat.

I think my 16 year old brother lacks the knowledge or chooses to ignore the fact that just because he goes to bed, it does NOT mean that my mom and I do. We both use the internet especially late at night. He decides to leave downloads going which slows down our net speed by maybe…. 5x? Pages rarely load and sometimes I feel like I’m on dialup and it is SO irritating. At times mom and I get mean and unplug him out of the network so we can use it freely. I admit, I download a lot but I turn it on at maybe 2am and they’re off as soon as I wake up so it doesn’t tick anybody off. So Rob, here’s a memo: We use the internet. Be kind, don’t upload/download when we’re all trying to use it. [/end rant]