The Idiot Brother and his equally idiotic wife.

Brother called yesterday. *sigh* I know better than to answer the phone.

You have to understand that Brother's wife, Drama Queen (DQ for short), is a really bad breeder. She had several miscarriages with her first husband, and several with Brother. She finally produced progeny about four years ago -- a girl with 9 half-formed vertebrae, half of one kidney working, and a hole in her heart, which was patched at 6 days old. (She'll require heart surgery every 4 years until she's grown, plus a titanium rib-spine, and probably a kidney transplant eventually.) This child was followed by a full-term trisomy-18 baby who died three days after birth. Now, at 41 years old, her idiot doctor has helped her get pregnant with twins. Yeah.

I blame most of this on her mother the Uber Drama Queen (UDQ), who, while the second baby was still dying in the NICU, began yet another of her frequent speeches on which cousins/friends have how many children and which are pregnant. The woman is relentless.

Still, Brother's wife started this pregnancy 100 pounds overweight, on high blood pressure medications, still refusing to eat vegetables. "Who feels like Arby's?" is her basic approach to dinner. You have to understand, this woman is college educated with a nice cushy high-paying job in the federal government. She knows better.

She now has horrible reflux, yet still eats pizza with hot sauce, resulting in a trips to the emergency room. She is on blood thinners for some protein disorder. She is at risk of actually dying during this pregnancy, leaving my house-husband brother with no college education, no income, no insurance, and no way to pay for his daughter's major medical care, or even pay the mortgage.

STUPID.

So, you can imagine that when he called yesterday (I had ducked his two earlier calls this week), I was less than enthusiastic about the preliminary genetic reports that the twins are fine.

My brother's goal in life is to watch Fox News and old German movies on DVD all day. He fancies himself an intellectual, but narrowly avoided finishing his college degree. (When I turned 30, I forbade my entire family from ever again saying, "Brother is soooo smart!" Bullshit.) He insists that global warming is a farce, health care doesn't need reform, etc. (Of course health care doesn't need reform. He has fantastic health insurance through -- wait for it -- his wife's job with the federal government.

I'm not sure if he's just that annoying, if he's just that irresponsible, just that hypocritical, or if I'm just a frustrated breeder myself. I just feel so hateful.

And I can't just say, "Hey, it's their business -- it doesn't impact me." Because it does. I'm going to have to listen to the drama. My 73-year-old mother is expected to come help care for twins. (DQ's mother is disabled by diabetes, and can't help. Besides UDQ has a nasty little dog that bites.) So, I'm expected to help, somehow. And, God forbid, if his wife dies in childbirth, he'll be moving in with my mom, near me. And God forbid these kids have autism, cerebral palsy, or a number of other problems. AND I'm expected to be happy about this whole debacle. I just feel for their daughter.

I just can't let go... What's the matter with me?