Does your brother have an explanation? I wonder what exactly makes people do this kind of thing. Is it that they are truly lazy, have a hard time dealing with reality, can’t be bothered, what is it? Did you confront him? What did he say? Was you Mom upset? You did say that there could be something wrong with him. Have you discussed his behaviour with your Mom to find out for sure. Because if there isn’t, I would certainly slap the shit outta him.
Thanks muchly, Zenster!
My mom doesn’t do anything like this on purpose - but she’ll tell everyone in the family about some important event, or happening, or “so-and-so is in the hospital”. I’ll find out about it from someone else, and call my mom and say, “well, thanks a lot, I found out three months after the fact that so-and-so WAS in the hospital, how are they doing now?”
She always says the same thing: “Didn’t I tell you? I could’ve sworn I told you. I told your brothers, and your sister, and all your aunts…are you SURE I didn’t tell you?”
The hell of it is, I am starting to do the same thing. I’m turning into my mother; just kill me now…
Ok, now that’s irritating; I did click “show signature” and it still didn’t.
Or maybe…maybe I just thought I did and I really clicked everything else…thanks a LOT, mom. 
As much as he fucked up, don’t you think 20 years is a bit long to hold a grudge?
Well, Mom doesn’t have long distance at the house, because she never uses it, and other people have used it a little too much, if you follow. And Mom’s cell phone number is, for some reason, long distance. According to my brother, he didn’t have enough minutes left on his calling card to make the phone call. I don’t entirely understand that, but okay. So he couldn’t make the call from the house. But he couldn’t find a pay phone? He couldn’t call me at the laundromat (which is local) and have me make the call? He couldn’t call our other brother, or said brother’s girlfriend, or something? There were probably five or six different people he could have called, all of them local. All of them would have figured out some way to call Mom. But he didn’t.
I haven’t asked him why he didn’t. I have a feeling I wouldn’t get an answer.
Acted? What were you REALLY?
Been there, did that, so, I know when the shoe fits.
Its amazing that youve had an experiance so similar to mine. When I had left for work one day, My sister called the house to say my father was in the hospital. My wife got the message (we wer having troubles at the time) and then left me a voicemail at work.
At the time, I was working within a very rigid working environment where we were to only return voicemails in reverse recieved order (some genius thought it would boost our CS reputation stats). So I didn’t get that message until noon.
I flew out of work, broke every speed record known to man and made it to that hospital in 15 minutes. I heard the last 3 sentances he was ever to say. He’d had a stroke and a second one was occurring as I arrived. I tried to tell him was there, but EVIL BITCH SISTER [&trade] jostled me out of the way to bullshit something about her daughters boyfriend. And that was his last sentance. And I never got to say goodbye. And no, there Is no closure, nor can there be.
Now I was Angry with my wife…and I nearly divorced her for that alone. But then I realized that if she’d truly been a Bitch, she never would have left the voicemail.
As for EBS[&trade], I’ll never forgive her for stealing my last minutes with my father. She Knew he’d had a stroke…she Knew it was bad…and she kept me from speaking to him, the selfish Cow.
Show off.
Maybe it’s like that saying in poker. If you look around the table and don’t know who the sucker is, it’s you.
I mean every family has a black sheep, and if you think they are all fine…
I KID, I KIIIIIIIIIID.
Don’t get me wrong. In the intervening decades he’s been able to come up with even more outrageous stunts to earn my disdain.
Where to begin? How about accusing my mother and step father of stealing some of his prize baseball cards and replacing them with ones of lesser quality?
Waving a handgun around in a fit of rage?
Making himself into a parasite in my mother’s home?
Being on the dean’s list at one of the finest universities in the world (Cal), only to take Icelandic and astronomy?
Adopting Zen’s (my wolf-hybrid’s) brother and not bothering to train the animal (which is now a hopeless basket case)?
Not holding a regular job for decades.
Need I continue?
He went to Cal for christ’s sake! How do you expect him to HOLD A JOB?
Go 'SC!
Curiously, my crazy aunt (who, as stated above, is very like my asshole brother), once accused one of her sisters of stealing her clothing. My aunt has worn the same clothing as long as I’ve been alive, and even when I was tiny it was patched and worn.
My brother has also had rage attacks (though he’s never waved a gun around, because he doesn’t own one), and he acts weirdly with animals - he acts like a toddler who thinks of pets as furry toys. He’ll be affectionate, but at the same time he doesn’t seem to realize that they’re alive and can get pissed off or hurt when he’s acting like an idiot.
In fact, Zenster, your brother sounds awfully familiar to me. And I do mean awful.
USC=Unusually Spolied Children