Sending it out, not getting it back

I'm feeling a isolated these days because both my Best Friend and my Oldest Friend are going through their own stuff and don't have the resources to be there for me.

They don't know each other, have never met, so this is just some sort of unfortunate convergence.

He's been out of work for a year, with few prospects. Part of the problem is that his background is in financial marketing and he's relocated to a city that doesn't have a big financial marketing community. It's as though he decided he wanted to teach surfing on the Great Lakes. It's not impossible for him to find a high-paying job in his wheelhouse in the community where he now lives, but it's unlikely. And at his age, in this economy, making a switch is hard. He's also dealing with problems with his own family and with his in-laws.

She's made some bad choices made way worse by bad luck. She's on her third job since moving to SoCal and she's making considerably less now than she was when she first arrived out west. Her kids have taken turns giving her (big) problems. Her health has been difficult. The cousin she moved 2000 miles to be near has been maddeningly unavailable to help and support her.

I am not unsympathetic to their plights. I just wish they wouldn't ask me how I'm doing, how I'm feeling, what's up with me. Because it's embarrassing to answer those questions honestly and get nothing back.

So for the foreseeable future, it's going to be, "How are you?" and my response will be, "Fine!"