Personal References

My underemployed self is getting it together to look for work again, seeing as there is no market for The Best Book Ever Written and today I was given three blanks to fill under ‘Character References’. Story of my life, I felt I had to fudge to fill them. I’m doing really well in terms of built-in friendships, but I don’t do ‘friends’ per se. Only real difference between now and yesteryear is I’m more reconciled with my reality,

In filling out applications, the fact of my loner existence hit hardest with me when I got to the personal references, as I was almost forced to acknowledge that I hadn’t any friends. You typically get three blanks, and for the life of me I couldn’t fill them. Once upon a time there was Pauli but it didn’t work out; once there was Owen and Isaac, also of the Brobeck clan, and even though the interviewers wouldn’t have known any better, I had serious misgivings about listing Todd Stickley as a friend, for our relationship was painfully shallow. Grudgingly I would jot his name and address– one down, two to go. Me and Daniel were close, but family didn’t count. I’d list Sophia Chinella unless they asked how many years acquainted, in which case she’d be out since I really only saw her for that month and a half, which was closer to zero years than one. Eventually I would write the name of Rose Brobeck, who always used to tell me, “Write when you find work.” Not that I was in contact with her either, but at least I knew her phone number. That still left one more blank.

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