Down and Out in Freeport, Maine

Well, I'm unemployed again. Turns out that column I've been writing for $35 was actually earning me $20. I found this out when I delved further into my "missing paychecks" with the billing lady at the newspaper. After a flurry of emails, wherein my editor explained that the pay is nominal -- which means trifling, in name only, minimal, less than its true value and just for the sake of appearances -- I decided that running around town looking for news and taking photos and spending hours writing it up, all the while thinking it meant something when it actually means nothing, is likely why I have been eating so much ice cream lately. So I am forfeiting that juicy annual salary of $1,040 and will instead use my free time to reclaim my vanishing self-esteem and get back to my fighting weight.