Last night I went to bed planning to get up this morning and beg my sister, Richard, Bertha, a coworker from a place I used to work at, a former manager from two jobs ago, and a neighbor I once collected mail for during his vacation to be my work and personal references.

I did not like this idea at all. I don’t know some of these people well at all, some of them may not remember me, some of them may or may not even like me, and the rest I already have concerns about being too beholden to.

But I woke up about 4:00 am with the easiest, most elegant solution possible: I’ll be my own references. Thanks to the magic of Skype, fifteen minutes later I had six new phone numbers, in four different area codes.

Half an hour after that, I had several new email addresses, each from a different domain name (one from Google, one from Yahoo, one from Hotmail, two from Mail.com, two from different domains I own).

I’m trusting that nobody uses snailmail anymore; if the HR guy asks for addresses I just won’t reply and will chalk it up to experience. It’s not like this job’s a dream come true or anything.

I have a feeling that my references are going to have excellent things to say about me.