My family

I know I already posted today, but I am just sitting in my bed doing nothing. So I decided that I’ll tell you about my family. I have a mom and a dad, two brothers, and a sister.

My parents are older than most parents. My mom was 40 when she had me. Because of that, I think that I have a different look on things than most of the kids around me. It’s like, my parents are old and pretty liberal, and all of my “friends” have parents that are younger, and quite conservative. I try to avoid the subject of politics when I’m out socializing.

My mom is not very girly. I don’t mean it in a bad way, she just is. She wears jeans from the men’s department and has very short hair and broad shoulders. She’s very kind. She is really into “random acts of kindness” and volunteer work. She genuinely cares about others. One of the things I love about her. On the other hand, she isn’t very good at socializing. She just doesn’t seem to communicate with people when she first meets them. I get embarrassed a lot when we’re at the super market or something, because of how awkward she is. I know I shouldn’t be, because she’s nice and means well, I just can’t help it. We don’t really get along. She tries to communicate with me, but I just can’t bring myself to open up to her. Plus, she is constantly reminding me about getting a job and filling out my college apps. I know I need to get those done, but I am already really stressed about them already. I just wish she would not remind me every damn day.

My dad is the opposite of my mother. He communicates very well with people, and has a lot of friends. Sometimes, when I have a friend over, he makes them uncomfortable, with how friendly he is. He isn’t trying to make anyone feel that way, he is just genuinely curious about people’s lives. He recently retired, and now spends most of his time doing work around the house and playing instruments. My dad loves music. He plays the guitar, banjo, violin, and bass. It’s a common thing in our house to be walking around and hear him singing a song. He made me a CD of some of his songs to take with me to college, in case I get homesick.

My oldest brother, John, graduated high school in 2006. He lives at home and is a pizza delivery man. John, due to complications during birth, has mild cerebral palsy in his left side (that causes him to walk with a limp), and short term memory loss. He will often ask me questions like what day it is or where dad went. Sometimes I get really annoyed with him, but I just have to remember that it isn’t his fault. He was born that way and it’s who he is. He loves movies. It’s the one thing we have in common. I can sit down with him and watch movies for a long time because neither of us talk, we get really involved in the story on the screen. He makes lots of stupid jokes, and I always pretend to laugh. Sometimes my laugh is genuine, he does have good ones now and then. Sometimes people think that he is autistic, because of his personality and limp. Once, at a basketball game, John came up to me and asked me what time it was. I told him and some girl sitting near me said, “He’s fucking retarded or something,”. I punched her.

My other brother, Steve, is his fifth year of college (he changed his major a lot. I don’t even remember what it is currently). He lives a couple of hours away from us, and comes up for a weekend every month or so. I know I shouldn’t say this, but he is my favorite sibling. He’s just such a great guy. He’s caring and really optimistic. He likes to wake up early and take a walk as the sun rises. Every time I talk to him he tells me to be more positive, that I’m missing out on life by spending so much time in my room. I suppose he is right. He also works as a pizza delivery man. We were never really close growing up. He was always just that guy who lived down the hall. We didn’t fight or anything, we just kind of ignored each other. I’ve always looked up to him though. He was popular in high school and he just has one of those personalities; he can talk to anyone and everyone likes him. He went through a rough patch a couple of years ago. I won’t get into it, but I like to think that he’s better now. He seems better to me. I really miss him. Ever since he went off to college we talk about how we should hang out, and spend some time together. It never really works out though. The sad thing is that he doesn’t really know me. But I know he wants to change that. I can tell. Sometimes he will call me “just to chat”. I applied to the college that he goes to, and he said he would show me around the campus. I would really love to have a close relationship with him.

My sister, Nicole, isn’t actually my sister. We aren’t blood related. She is my neighbor, and has been since we were four. So, she really has become my sister. I don’t know what to say about Nicole.. We wrestle a lot. She is socially awkward (as am I), and in all honesty, she is a very shallow person. I know that’s a bad thing to say, but I think it’s really true. I understand though, she was just raised differently than me. She’s very stubborn too. It’s impossible to win an argument with her. She’s always been a good sister though. She listens to me when I have problems and I do the same for her. Over the past year or so, she started hanging out with my friends with me. So they no longer refer to her as “Melanie’s sister”, they just call her Nicole. I am still not sure how I feel about that.

So that’s my family. They annoy me a lot, but I love them.

xoxo,

Melanie