This is going to be a very self-absorbed, whiny rant. You won’t feel any compassion for me and might even feel like reaching out through the screen and slapping me.

I’ve been feeling very lonely and isolated lately. I live with my sister and her family in a very pedestrian unfriendly town. There’s no way to get around if you don’t have a car, and I can rarely borrow one. I work from home. I don’t have enough money to move out. My husband lives thousands of miles away due to his job and I rarely get to see him. I have made no friends here (no car, no time, nowhere to socialize). I love my sister and her family but they have their own routines and lives. I’m more low-key, they are all high-energy and outgoing. I feel like an outsider when I spend time with them.

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy going out (for walks, getting coffee, volunteering). At home I enjoy cooking. But all those things are near impossible when you don’t have a car and can’t get around. As for the cooking, I haven’t been able to squeeze in time without someone else needing to do something in the kitchen. It’s their house, so I defer to them first. And they don’t usually eat what I’ve tried to cook for them – my sister went so far as to modify my dishes while I was prepping them.

I am at my wits’ end. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I am in a dead-end job with no prospects and living a life I don’t like. I wish I could be with my husband. I wish I could enjoy life again.