Hey Slick,

Welcome to the "Half Way Club". I just turned 50 in February but I don't feel it. I guess age is a state of mind. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

Steffi N.

Before moving to Michigan in September, I was a writer for a CT newspaper. I love to write. It's my passion. Unfortunately, the newspaper business is a cut throat business. When I got to MI, I called some of the newspapers here to see if they were looking for freelance writers and they said that right now is a bad time for newspapers. The recession has really hit them hard. When I left CT, they were laying people off. I submitted a story back in June and worked with my editor through December, with his PROMISE that it would be published. Well, they killed the story and decided not to run it. The good news is, from all my effort and hard work, I got paid a "kill" fee of $300. That ain't no chump change. I'm going to work on it a little more and mail it out to some of the magazines. Someone will pick it up. It's a story about an adult child of an elderly alcoholic parent who is forced to play "caregiver". Based on a true story (moi )