Please also consider the strong and well-informed opinions that say there will be no shortage. I have a few contacts in high places that drink the cool-aid and say there will be a huge pilot shortage, but they use numbers and studies that have been proven wrong over and over again.
If you want to 'live the dream' and have already realized the pay will suck, have you considered just playing the Great Lakes game for the length of their retainer? I believe it's 12 months, but could be wrong. That way, you'd get to be an airline pilot for a while and could go back to doing something that makes money.