Having a brother

(Another element of the Off-Season Vacation.)

"What's that stand for?" Mom asked. She was sitting in the living room of the condo while my brother and I leaned against the counter in the kitchen opposite her.

My brother's eyes were searching the ceiling for the proper sequence of words, so I answered, "Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game."

Not to be outdone, my brother added, "Well, anyone who's been playing them since the beginning just calls them MUDs for Multi-User Dungeon."

"Oh," Mom said, quickly losing interest.

"Besides, MUD is more fun to say," he continued.

"Oh, I don't know," I said, "Mmm morp-ga is kinda fun to say."

"Yeah, I guess so," he shrugged, walking back to his laptop to continue playing his sci-fi space MMORPG.

"What's that one called again?"

Without looking back, he said, "Eve."

"Hmm, I haven't heard of that one." Not surprising with my minimal acquaintance with MMORPGs. "Hey, did you know they're making one based on Firefly?"

He looked over his shoulder at me and said, "Eve already has everything you could want in a space-based MUD, there's no need for another."

"Oh."

"They'll probably base it on Eve's code," he added snidely.

"I was just making conversation."

***

My brother delights in keeping the intellectual high ground whether it's deserved or not when it comes to me. His modus operandi is to grin and contradict whatever I've just said to get on my nerves. I had become used to letting him ramble as an expert on any topic, but this contradiction business was a new torture.

Only 2 days into our week of vacation together, this same contradictory exchange occurred for the twelfth time as we were all heading to the elevator to go to dinner.

I'd had enough and said, "You're really annoying."

He laughed and said, "You're my sister. I'm supposed to be."

"It makes me not want to see you."

Everyone else was talking as well so it was unnoticed by them, but it actually shut him up as we stepped into the elevator.

SAME DAY, LATER

As much as my brother drives me crazy, when I interrupted him and his wife cozily reading books on their balcony, he readily got up to help me with the flat screen TV. I could get the TV stereo on, but the picture wouldn't change channels. I'd found the input but not how to change the setting up or down from where it was. Once he'd gotten it and had shown me what he'd done, I imitated his 4 year old daughter and sing-songed, "Thank you, Daddy!"

He laughed pretty hard at that. I like making my family laugh.

The next day, he offered to open my ginger ale bottle when he saw I was having trouble with it.* What can I say? He's my brother.


*I don't know what Schweppes does, but their caps are damn hard to twist off. Give me some Canada Dry!

One year ago on TTaT: Looking for cheer?
Technorati tags: brothers and sisters, sibling relationships, MMORPG, MUD