Happy Birthday, Jackass!

Today is the 23rd of March, and in my family this is usually a big day for us. It was on this day in 1977 that my youngest brother was born. Matthew turns 36 today and the bad news is I will not be celebrating the day with him. Despite my best efforts, my youngest brother and I are not on good terms. I haven’t even spoken with him in months, despite the fact that we pretty much live less than a three minute drive from one another. It’s a shame but one of many indicators that things are not well between us.

A lot of significant things have happened in the last twelve months. My brother’s offspring doubled with the birth of his second child. It wasn’t a planned pregnancy (complete understatement) but since young Faith was born, this uncle has not been invited to meet the child, ever. Other brother has seen the kid a few times, but not this one. I don’t blame him for it completely, his ex (they don’t see each other anymore from what I gather) doesn’t seem to like me very much, despite the fact that we’ve never met. She made an effort to reach out on Facebook, only to drop me like a wet blanket after finding out about my devout atheism. My bro’s new baby mama is very religious, as in Baptist religious, so that wasn’t entirely shocking.

It’s not that I didn’t make an effort to be nice to my little bro. Last November when my Dad had surgery, Matt went down to Nashville to help them, but he couldn’t take his dog Molly with him. The dog wasn’t feeling very well and since Chris was working all the time, I volunteered to go down there and watch his dog and take care of her until she got better. Not only did I tend for his mutt, but I didn’t even charge him for the service. I wasn’t doing anything at the time and I didn’t want Chris to miss work so I was happy to help them out just for the hell of it. I also made this effort to mend things between myself and Matt. Turns out that was a futile effort.

I heard a few months ago that my brother was bad mouthing me to my cousin and her husband a few months ago. He said some very terrible things about me, and that was tossed by into my face by my cousin’s husband who is the kind of turd that enjoys doing stuff like that. This is why I never bothered to tell my brother about my medical issues, considering that I prefer to keep what’s going on private and I can’t trust him to keep things to himself. Wonder what gives me that impression about my little brother. So my bro barely has half the picture of what’s going on that that doesn’t stop him from being a complete asshat. I’m glad I haven’t had the chance to see him in the last few months, because the only thing he would have gotten from me was a face full of chicklets.

So to say things are strained between myself and my little brother would be a complete understatement. Truth is, I’m not alone concerning this as well. The only reason my older brother talks to him at all is that they’ve been flatmates for the last year and a half but that’s about to end as well. My brother has recently gotten engaged, and his new fiancé doesn’t like Matt at all, which isn’t shocking. Chris has moved out and is shaking up with his wife to be and Matt is moving to Oakville so once that happens neither myself nor Chris will not talk to Matt for years if not longer. At the moment, I’m strangely okay with that. The guy clearly wants nothing to do with me and that the moment the feeling is mutual.

Even if I wanted to wish my bro a happy birthday, I cannot. We are not friend on facebook (shocking, I know) and I don’t even have his new phone number. So despite the fact that I have the kids this weekend, they can’t wish their uncle a nice day either, which is a shame because they don’t see their uncle at all either. While I have one brother that does nothing for my boys, I have one that does everything for them… which is better than none. It’s not like I can complain, seeing that I’m not the world’s best uncle either. Then again, I don’t get to visit either of my nieces since both their mothers are devoutly religious and they’re no doubt scared that atheism is contagious. So no one wants to let their impressionable kids near the heathen, which is surprising because I’ve never brought religion a single time when speaking with either of them. Go figure.

So that’s where I stand with my little bro on his 36th birthday. Despite our differences, I hope the dude has a decent day as I wouldn’t wish anyone a bad birthday, even an asshat like him. Then again, he is getting the same thing I got from him for my birthday last October, sweet fuck all. Not even a note to wish him well. This entry is the only time I’m even going to mention it today.

Happy birthday, Jackass.

Peter