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2002-02-08 | 11:47 a.m.

I scan the job ads online every day. Every single day. But today I am reading with more urgency than usual.

We are broke. I think I need to get a job.

Either I need a part-time job where I can shuffle the kids around without paying for full-blown childcare, or a full-time job that pays a lot (so I can afford to pay for childcare times three), or seriously restart my freelancing career.

Hmmm.

Despite being sort of worthless in a certain light, I am not untalented. I think my problem is that I tend to stretch when job-hunting. I reach for opportunities that are just slightly beyond my grasp, while ignoring lower paying, lower prestige jobs I could do easily.

But isn't that what you're supposed to do? I wouldn't be doing myself a favor by hiring on at Wal-Mart, or answering phones, or writing for an outlet so small that they can only afford to pay 15 or 20 dollars a piece? No----better to be broke.

Here are my talents:

I can write light features, interviews, profiles. Easy.

I can write how-to articles on personal computing and the Internet with only slightly more effort. (Yes, I know, everybody says that, but I've actually made a living at it, so it's worth mentioning.)

I am a "good enough" photographer with a digital camera.

I can do voice work.

Hey, check it out. Earlier I wrote a really honest letter to my editor at the local news web site (about why I haven't managed to turn in any restaurant reviews lately; namely, no money and no babysitter), and he just wrote me back, basically bending over backwards to find ways for me to keep writing for him. He suggested that I write a column for him, possibly on parenting and kids, though he can only pay me $25 per. That is a hell of a lot less than I should be making for a column (at the risk of sounding like a fathead), but maybe I should take it on anyway. After all, I haven't worked out anything else. Maybe I could parlay it into something bigger elsewhere, as we used to say in the sports book.

If nothing else, it just feels like a good omen.

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