STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I think making friends is really important for you right now - in light of your recent posts - and IMO you should take every opportunity like this one to get out and associate with people your own age (if you feel up to it, of course).  I think it's really great that you want to be so involved with your brother and go to all of his games!  If you go to almost all of them, I don't think missing one occasionally is a bad thing.  The benefits to your mental health of going out with friends outweighs going to see your brother in this particular situation IMHO.  Not to make it sound like I think you're crazy of course!  But I've been in a similar situation (lack of local friends) before, and I was pretty depressed/reclusive because I didn't really do anything about it. 

Once you get the ball rolling going out with people, I think you'll get more invitations more often, which would be a very good thing.  I normally don't advocate skipping things with your family to be with friends, but there will be other basketball games (you could even make a deal with yourself to go to every other game this season, since you have to miss this one), but if you turn these people's invite down this time, you might not be invited to do anything else for awhile, ya know?

Errr.... Im so torn, the thing I forgot to mention is that since Im in Columbus now for school, I don't get to see any of his games anymore because I dont have the time to go home to pittsburgh on the weekends during the semester, Ive only gotten to see a few games while home for xmas break, and this will probably be the last weekend im going home until spring break, which his season will be over. 

Id really like to stay and go out with friends, but I feel like I would feel a huge amount of guilt for not being at my bros game..

Whats a girl to do???  Probably listen to my ST girls, they always know best!

how far is columbus and pittsburgh? is there ANY way you could go to another game, even if its a little inconvenient? I'd normally be all about the fam, but i really think you'd be so much happier to start making friends (even if this weekend you regret it and think you're a bad sister- which you're not!). i dont think the stila event would be enough of a reason to stick around, but def. to hang out with some new people. Do they seem like people you really want to know better? that would seal the deal for me. if you're so so about that- then i'd just go home and see the family. if you're really interested in meeting them, then do that.

Thanks girls for all the advice!  In the end, I ended up going home friday afternoon.  And I am actually soo glad I did... My brother ended up having like one of the best games ive ever seen, his team won and he was the high scorer.  Then my friends from home that i never get to see, that i wanted to see during christmas break but didnt, called me so I went out to downtown pittsburgh and had soo much fun with them, it was such a blast, the only downside was i saw alot of people from my hs that i hadnt seen in years.  But it was really enjoyable, so, in the end i think i made the right choice.  Oh, and phantom of the opera today was soo good, the music was beautiful, and our seats were great, front row and center! cant beat that!