Doom & Gloom

Last year my goal was to make $20,000 as a part-time, freelance copywriter. I made less than five. Disappointed but not broken, this year I vowed to wow the industry and return triumphant after the childrearing hiatus I survived. Nearly four months in, and I’ve billed $145.00. One hundred, forty-five. That’s billed, not received.

Hmmmmm, apparently my return-to-work, I-am-woman-hear-me-roar work ethic has hit the economic tsunami, and while I pound the virtual pavement seeking to network, those far more connected than I easily plow me under.

It’s the ‘back of the line’ for me buster.  There’s no work out there, a ga-zillion of people looking for it, and return-to-work moms aren’t on the list.  

Don’t give me the “look at the glass half full” speech. I’m so flippin’ sick of the pollyannas that blame this mess on the news anchors and doomsday newspapers (those still publishing…), internet rumors, and cynics like me. Get your head out of the sand. It sucks out there and it’s real and it’s bad and it’s personal.

Out of work parents apply for free lunch at the schools. Kids pulled out of daycare and after-school programs. For sale signs pepper trailer parks and mansion row. Kids rosters short players, but plenty of out-of-work parents willing to coach. Community colleges burst with desperate kids and professionals looking to reinvent or complete an education. Corporate casualties bag groceries and wait tables and happy to do it. No one is immune.  

A telecommuting dad told me recently he panics when he hears the garage door open mid-day.  Or a cell phone call before dinner leaves you wondering if they’re carrying a box to their car, escorted.

A New York cop said the commute in is quick, because no one’s on the roads, and less pedestrian traffic on the streets once in. And he sadly adds the recession is job security, as theft and domestic violence calls are way, way up. Ugh.  

It’s dark and gloomy and I’m looking for funny, really I am, but nobody’s laughing.