Yep, today was a weird day.

Well, okay, some background - last week, my brother (you know, the one who had a heart attack in his twenties) was beat up by two guys. To save a long boring history lesson - my mother's relationship with my brother is frustrating. He takes advantage of her, both economically and however else he can, and she won't listen to anyone who tries to even just reason with her. My father has stopped trying.

Basically, my brother is my mother's project, the one thing she'll pour everything into to try and mold him into the person that both she and society accepts as a "normal" person. He's far from it, and she won't stop trying. Every once in a while I'll be like, "Hey, sure, what the hell, he's not too bad a guy," but then he'll act like he always does and everything will go back to the way it was.

So anyways, ever since he got beat up, my mother's been so on edge that we're all walking on eggshells. I didn't think she was serious when she yelled at me for laughing today, but yeah, she was. And it's gotten my father all on edge, too.

I went with her to drop off Christmas presents for my brother's ex-girlfriend's daughter (another story), and we were in the neighborhood where my brother was beat up. As she was walking back to the car I was sitting in waiting on her, I unlocked the doors, and she yelled at me because she thought she already did it, or something. And then immediatly called my brother to ask him what kind of car the guys who beat him up drive. She said that every person she sees, she just wonders if "that's one of them."

I guess I just don't really get it. My brother's fine, aside from a broken finger and hurt eye. And now, a week later, she's still acting kind of crazy, and is almost acting like the mother I met who lost her son in a gang fight - she never found out who did it and always questions it. I don't know, I'm not my mother, but I feel like she may be taking it too far.

But the again, this is my mother, and she's always dropped everything in her life to help my brother become the person he is - a border-line unemployed pot addict.

Phew, I'm feeling a little better now. I think it's more that I'm in my room and can finally breathe. But tomorrow is another day, which will hopefully be a better one.

Oh Christmas...