Freedom Fries My Ass

My mother sent me an e-mail earlier today in regard to my Dad’s coming birthday. He turns eighty at the end of this month, and so we are having a meal out.

She has asked us (my little brother and me) to find a restaurant in the area – something I suspect I am going to be pretty bad at, because I rarely go out for dinner (since I live on my own), and the odd times I do (generally when my girlfriend is down, or there is a "do" at work) we go to places that neither of my parents would like. So even if I find somewhere I like, there are very good odds that neither of them will like it.

Then – when you add in my brother Ronnie, who seems to treat every single suggestion and idea I have with utter contempt – I might as well just give up before I start, because there is no way that any of my suggestions are going to be accepted.

Which leads me to my other problem with the upcoming meal – my little brother Ronnie.

My little brother Ronnie works in an art studio, of sorts. He mostly works on commissions from other people – creating various works for companies, individuals and so on. He is, apparently, pretty good and gets a lot of work.

Unfortunately, the TechSupport staff in his studio are, apparently, pretty incompetent. And by that, I mean they apparently won’t bow to his will and do everything he demands of them, regardless of how reasonable or insane his those demands might be.

And, because (he believes that) his TechSupport people are useless, he has come to the conclusion that anyone who works in tech support is useless and not worthy of his respect.

Now, if you have been paying attention to the past few entries, you’ll probably remember that I work in TechSupport. Something that my brother knows, because I have mentioned it once or twice.

So you can imagine just how much I enjoy talking to him when I know he has no respect for what I do and anything I say when I am talking about what I’ve been doing at work.

Generally the conversation goes like this – I explain something about what I’ve done, he makes an insulting/condescending comment about it (because – since he has used a computer once or twice in his life – he is apparently an expert in everything to do with computers, including software he knows nothing about and networks he has never used), I attempt to defend what I said, but he continues in a tone that suggests I am clearly an idiot and nothing I am going to say is worthy of listening to.

And, of course, when the conversation shifts to anything that doesn’t involve computers, I might as well not say anything at all, because he knows absolutely everything about everything. 

I am starting to dread family meals because of this. I can’t talk about my job, because it will lead to smugness and insults,  I can’t talk about the TV I like because apparently Ronnie objects to the "infantalisation of adults" and all the shows I like are a part of this trend. I can’t talk about the books I read because if I am not reading books about philosophy and how the mind works I might as well be reading the complete works of Janet and John and their friends Dick and Jane.

The last few meals – when my girlfriend hasn’t been with me – I have ended up mostly staying quiet and only making a few comments so that there was nothing for him to latch on to and use to display his undeniable genius and brilliance compared to my apparent stupidity and ignorance about everything.

Hopefully, given it is a "special" birthday (as opposed to a typical one!) he might be able to restrain his personality and actually be a decent human being.

But I am not holding my breath.