I'm related to an Idiot.

I know.  I know I should be aware of this.  I really should.  I mean, I've posted about some of the genius things my little brothers have done on here before.  I worry, because these are the genes I share, folks.  I carry this dumbassery trait in me.

The past few months, the older of the two (the younger is still in prison, natch) has been trying to reinsert himself in my life.  I'm always wary about this, but at the same time, I don't want to be a total bitch to him, because hey, we're still family, right?  So when he out of the blue calls me and tells me he wants to see me a few months ago because he's in town, I say sure.

Do I like him knowing where I live?  No.  It frankly makes me nervous because the reason why he was in prison all those times is because he's a thief, and not only is he a thief, he's stolen from me in the past.  So there's that.  But still.  Family, blahblahblah.

So he comes and visits and it goes okay.  Then he goes back to prison (flipping genius, but TOTALLY not his fault, of course) and when he gets out he starts to comment on my Facebook stuff here and there.  Oh, and poking me.

Apparently people still do that.

Anyway, he posted this blurb about being pissed off about his ex-wife un-friending him on Facebook because he told her to stop using "his" last name.  His ex-wife who is, by the way, the mother of three of his four children, all who also bear his last name.  When I had the audacity to point out that our own mother used our father's last name after she left him because it just makes sense for a mother's name to match that of her children's if possible... well, I got treated to a glimpse of just HOW stupid my brother actually is.  OY.

I'm posting this on here as a reminder to myself that even when things seem hard, they would be so, so very much worse if I was as stupid as he is.  Please feel free to skip reading the screen shots.  :)  If you do, please enjoy his oh-so-klassy avatar photo.  He tells me it's "sexy."

So yeah, by this point is was just so downhill and so pointless that I just started messing with him for fun.  What's the opposite of "sour grapes?"  Schadenfreude?  If so, that's what I have after all this, and if that makes me a bad person then oh well.  I endured this sort of back-assward thinking and attitude from just about everyone who surrounded me for the first half of my life, and I am SO SO HAPPY to have escaped it.

I am thankful beyond measure for the teachers who cared for me and took me under their wings to show me that there was another way, and that life could be more than living in that neighborhood with those types of narrow, ignorant mindsets.  I'm thankful that I didn't live in a community where people were dead set against sex-ed in schools (because my mom never had any kind of "talk" with me ever) so I was able to learn about birth control and able to wait until I was done with my growing up (for the most part at least - HA!) to have my babies.  I'm thankful that I didn't just blindly say yes to the first guy who asked me to marry him because I was smart enough to know he was NOT RIGHT for me and it wouldn't have worked out in the long run.

You know, other than the fact that I'm not entirely thrilled about some of my relations, I'm feeling pretty dang thankful for my life in general right now, because even though it's not perfect, it could be just like his life.  That would be sad.


PS - I totally should have added knowing big words to my list of "skillz."  Dang.  I didn't even have to look up how to spell schadenfreude or anything!  HA!