Back of the House

About four years ago, he contacted me out of the blue. I am still friends with several people I dated before I got married, but only one is, well, not. We are not friends. I called to check on him in the aftermath of September 11, and I ran into him about a week later, because we lived in neighboring buildings. But aside from that we've had no contact since. So, four years ago I get a phone call in the middle of the day from the woman who was my best friend in college, and who is still a very good friend today. Now, at the time, I was a stay-at-home-mom with a sideline in adjunct and online teaching, but I did remember that it's odd to get personal phone calls in the middle of the day from people with office jobs. "Who's dead?" No one, she assured me. But she had a Facebook message from Jeff 1 . Jeff? Jeff Who? Bridges? Goldblum? The guy with the puppets? Who? Nope. Jeff. She paused to let it sink in. Jeff Jeff. Ohhhh.  Jeff.  Crap. He had asked her fo...

So, as many of you who have this blog on your radar know, I am currently unemployed. This past week, though, I had a highly successful meeting with a recruiter named Susie at a national temp/recruiting agency. Yay, right? Right, but there was something else. They required me to give a reference from my last job. That was a bit of a problem, as my supervisors from my last job adored my teaching, but were not really thrilled with how much time off I took. There was a point in the interview, where I had to say something. "About my references," I started. I don't remember my exact words, but they boiled down to this. I had some serious problems starting in September 2010, starting with a miscarriage, and I never quite bounced back. I am a chronic depressive. I am on medication, and I keep it in check with regular therapy and visits to my psychiatrist. I had problems getting to work some days, especially with a long commute. I said it. I laid everything down. It ...