Isolation

I am lonely. Really, really lonely. I worried before we moved here that I would feel very isolated but I just wasn't prepared for it to be this bad. I had some vague hope that one of Jeremy's colleagues would have a wife who was in the same situation as me. Unfortunately, the only other faculty wife here who doesn't work homeschools her 5 children. We wouldn't have been fast friends anyway.

Thomas and I spend most weekdays alone together. I love him but until he's old enough to go out for a beer every once in a while, he just won't cut it in the friend department.

When Jeremy is home, he's working. He works 10-14 hours a day, seven days a week. A lot of that time is spent at home with us but he's not really with us. About half of the time that he's home, I leave to work on my proposal. Which I do alone. I used to go to a coffee shop to work but it got to be too depressing. Too many people there hanging out with their friends.

I try to find things to do during the day. I shop at 3 different grocery stores. That fills up Tuesdays. When I have to go to the post office or to Walmart, I walk the 2 mile round-trip with Thomas in the stroller so that it will take longer. I was jogging on the way home but I've stopped doing that because I get home too fast. The last two weeks, we spent a lot of time in the front yard planting flowers, an herb garden from seed and a couple of vegetable plants in pots. But now that everything has been planted there's not a lot to do. I've started cooking dinner at around 10 in the morning. Sometimes I take Thomas to Target even when we don't need anything because the little old ladies there will stop to talk to him. If there are no little old ladies, I'll find something to buy so I can talk to the checkout girl. They almost always ask how old he is.

I've looked for a playgroup to join. Our section of Sacramento isn't very family oriented so there's really nothing near us. Elk Grove, the suburb south of us, is lousy with families which causes the opposite problem. There are lots of playgroups but they all have waitlists to join. I think I've found an open group that meets on Tuesdays (I'll have to reschedule grocery shopping). We'll try it out next week.