Can I be Nearly as Interesting as Slang?

[Elspode]

Strangely, very little interest has ever been shown in paying me for my writing. I do receive many kind words from nice people like Cellarites. Certainly, I've made very little money at it in the real world.

I used to get paid to write for the UMKC U-News about seven years ago. My wife was then the Ad Manager and Arts and Entertainment Editor (the two most plum jobs on the staff for non-sports types, and even at that, I got to go shoot the Division I basketball home games). I was the Arts and Entertainment reviewer and Photo Editor. Now *that* little arrangement was sweet. Lots of free stuff like movies and concerts and promo items, plus a meager paycheck were ours each week. It was definitely my idea of a primo part time job. It was, in fact, much more like being paid to entertain yourself than being any real sort of work. I mean, I learned to shoot and develop black and white pictures just for fun, and there I was actually paid by the picture. Sigh.

Unfortunately, she graduated, and it all ended. I had to take at least one credit hour in order to classify as a "student" to be able to work for the paper, but I didn't even do that until I'd been at it for a few months. Even then, the class I took was a four-day local geology course that was held over two consecutive weekends, which was also big fun.

Life isn't nearly as fun or easy as it was back in those days.

Mari, no...I haven't delivered phone books, and Gods willing, I never will.