, everyone. I was so upset I just cried after I came home. It was great to see your responses.
I am lucky to have my parents. My boyfriend and I went to their house for dinner, and we talked about my brother. My parents think he needs therapy. He is very angry and maybe? drinking alcohol too much. (He wasn't drinking at lunch.) They will talk to him on Sunday.
He's always been mean, which is weird in my nice family. Whenever he said something nasty to me in the past, he would later say "you misunderstood me", which was a lie. One year when I was very young I switched to some very ugly BTEs, but he was the only one who teased me. I don't understand why he is so angry.
I agree that it would be wrong to have my roommate write for me (she is going to read this, so 
to her 
). But she wouldn't do that and I wouldn't ask her to. We talk a lot about ASL and English. She wanted to know the sign for "the" so she could sign something like "I like the dog". She always wants to add a "the"! She also didn't understand about not needing to sign "dog" if the dog was right there and one could point at it. We discuss this often, and I say repeatedly "You make it harder. Just point! And no "the"! 
". We talk about English slang etc and there's plenty she understands that I do not. She will be a great English teacher (honest! ). My mom visits since she works on campus, and we have great discussions about words, English, and ASL. One discussion was when to use "the" or "a" when speaking- my mom says in England they say "I have to go to hospital" where in the US we say "I have to go to the hospital". Neither of them knew why, which was funny. We all learn a lot. And laugh a lot. Growing up with a mother as a English professor and reading all the time, I like and think these things are important.
(My roommate adds that she always reads her writing out loud to hear how it sounds and in her classes about teaching English they encourage students to have other (hearing) students read their writings out loud.)
I feel better. Writing this out made me realize I am lucky. I have a good, fun life. I feel bad for my brother because he is miserable and he gives this misery to others. I hope he goes to therapy.
