Toothpaste Wars and Buster Battles

Today’s topic—my brother.

Sibling rivalry. What a familiar discussion, eh? It’s just bound to happen. There are all different situations, little brother big sister, little kid stuck in the middle, etc… Today I am gonna grovel and whine about mine.

Let’s face it. You put two teenagers of the opposite sex in the same house, there is gonna be slamming of doors and screaming fights and odd objects being thrown across the room. It’s gonna be “NOT FAIR!” and it’s gonna be “it’s his fault!” or “he started it!” and “you just don’t understand, MOOOOM!”

Mom. Poor Mom. –sigh- What a glorious person she is for putting up with my sassy and sarcastic attitude. I just get so MAD. Okay, enough, I’m gonna quit whining like a baby now.

He just-! and, it’s just… I’m trying, but he--- ugh.

The simplest things can set me off. And it’s just him. Somebody else could do or say these things, and I may find them funny or I find it easy to ignore them. But with my brother, it just gets me furious. We know lots of people who say they despised their siblings as kids, but now they are closer than ever. I know Mom keeps praying that will be the case with us. I just don’t see how I can ever get along with him. There are days when he is nice and sweet and amiable, just being nice and willing and it’s easy to get along with him. And there are days when I try, I really do, but he is trying to make me mad and is just egging it on. I can only take so much before I blow! Mom says to just ignore him, getting angry is the reaction he wants… But I’m only human! I can’t stand him! Why would one person’s objective in life be to make his blood sister miserable?

Ugh. I am livid.

He just. Makes me. So. Mad.

I mentioned that the simplest things set me off. This morning, it was toothpaste. We all use Colgate. About a week ago, he decided he wanted to buy this new kind of Crest, I dunno why, probably because it was pricey and the tube looked cool. Well two days after he gets it, I find it in my drawer and my toothpaste is in his cabinet.

Uh. Excuse me?

I exchange the toothpastes to their proper places, don’t say a word, trying desperately to be reasonable and even-tempered. Two days later…

The toothpastes are back where they don't belong.

And I know exactly why. He bought the Crest. Didn’t like it. Put it in my drawer and took my toothpaste and put it in his cabinet.

Um. Yeah, I don’t think so.

So I stomp into his room shaking the Crest in his face and seething through my teeth, I’m sure smoke was wafting from my ears and nostrils. He tried to cover up by saying “well I thought we didn’t have any toothpaste left, so I bought that, but then I realized we still have some, so I’m trying to finish it up.”

Oh yeah right. Since when does he care about ‘finishing anything up’? A few years ago, he wanted a comb but found a brush he liked better, so he bought the brush. He ended up not liking the brush and it ended up in my drawer. (I am very territorial about my drawer!) He told me I should use it so it wouldn’t go to waste, because it hurt his scalp to use it.

Too bad, buster.

That’s another one. When I get mad, I have a tendency to call him ‘buster’. He hates it and we usually end up chasing each other around the house, one of us wielding a spatula and the other a knitting needle until we catch each other and try to beat the life out of each other with our respective weapons.

Yeah, not exactly mature. But in my defense he is 2.5 years older than me! He is 17 years old, for heavens sake! Mom is always telling me to be the bigger person, but technically, that’s his job.

I often find him also telling me to “zip it” or “shut up” because he “doesn’t want to hear it”.

Hehe. Too bad, Buster. You’re not the boss of me! I don’t care if you don’t want to hear it, you are going to! I will not submit to you!

Sometimes that ends with him throwing a pillow at me and saying a few choice words before storming out of the room. And I usually get in trouble for it.

Figures.

Okay, I’m sorry for this rather… uninteresting… rant. I feel a lot better now, though. This is probably a typical teenage-sibling situation.

But it’s just not fair!

Okay, I’m done. Really, I am. Sometimes a person has to just let this stuff out! Writing it helps me relieve my anger…

Today we will be in town all stinkin day. Grrrr. I’m already in a bad mood. Tyler and I have to play a duet for my piano teacher we are gonna play at my recital, him with the guitar, me with the piano. It’s hard to play in peace and harmony with somebody you really dislike. We have orthodontist appointments, I have an optometrist appointment, Tyler has college class and a guitar lesson, I need to go to Target, we’ll probably end up at Wal-Mart too, the only real highlight of my day will be stopping by the church to give Justin (our youth leader) this really cool devotional thing I read this morning.

Speaking of Bible stuff. I still have this anger smoldering inside of me… I think I’m gonna go read a few verses or something to cool down.

Thanks for letting me rant. If you didn’t enjoy it… Sorry.

Everybody have just a super day.