Family.

I had to finish reading Never Let Me Go over break for English so after several days of bumming around, I picked up the book today, resolved to finish it all in one sitting. Of course, after a single digit number of pages, I was soon fast asleep within the warmth of my covers, the morning's ridiculous track workout having drained me of the energy required to keep my eyes open. Upon waking up with the outburst of several expletives, I decided to finish the rest of my reading downstairs in the living room, where I was more likely to stay awake.

Innocently minding my own business, I made my jolly way down the stairs, happy to have set my mind on something so productive after being a useless bum for the past few days. I made a beeline for my favorite corner of the couch and was just about to settle into a comfortable reading position when my dad walked out of the kitchen and exclaimed, "Well, if it isn't Brooke in the living room! Haven't seen you on this level of the house except to eat or play piano!" I looked up with a taken aback, "What?" then pretended to commence with my reading. Inside my head, though, I felt slightly confused. What did he mean?

And then I felt bad because I realized that I've been spending most of my time cooped up in my own room, and that I probably talk to people on gchat ten times more often than I talk to my own family. That's pretty sad. But then again I think I'm painting a bad picture here, I love my parents and my brother and I have a very good family life - much better than that of most people's, so I've come to realize over the years - but I guess I haven't been appreciative of that. Hmm, I should probably thank them sometime before I go off to college. But we all know that only happens in sappy movies and TV shows.