Thank you for your wonderful post Sarah! You understand my situation 100% and I'm grateful to friends like you here whose support is genuine and devoid of snarky judgment. I am weeding out the bad offers (like that recruiter who lied to me on the phone to get me to agree to come into the temp agency to prepare for this so-called 'direct hire' job offer, which he already knew I would have said no to on the phone, had he told me the truth then) b/c the right fit for me is still out there. And, I've already been down that road of taking a job I knew was a bad idea which never has a good outcome.

I knew my one day assignment yesterday was a good idea. I filled-in for a receptionist (a 22 year old recent college grad who's only been there 3 months in her receptionist role -- she told me all of this).

Her supervisor said he would definitely request me back b/c he likes to keep the same 'contractors' on, in case he ever needs to fill this young lady's job if she chooses to leave. So if she's sick or goes on vacation he told me he would request me to fill in for her and that temp agency (not the horrible one I posted about in my OP here) is located in the same building as this international company is. So, while on the surface it was only a one-day contract job, I just secured future contract work there for myself, by giving the supervisor my availability for work.