16 Painful Interviews (part 6)

During March, I was called in for some sort of invoicing position at a shipping company. It was international shipping as the cargo fit into steel shipping containers that floated over the oceans. It seemed like the job required a lot of communication with vendors. It would be important to make sure payments were received on time, cargo went to the proper destination, and cargo arrived on time. The woman interviewing me looked at the application that I filled out and noticed the requested salary was $36000. Immediately, she asked if that salary was negotiable and I said yes. The position was only going to pay $30000 per year. It wasn’t a position I was excited about and the commute was over 25 miles. I recall the lady from HR was talking about her son being stationed in Alaska for some reason but I couldn’t care about anything she had to say or try to build a fake connection with her.

About a week later, I was called in for an interview in the accounts payable position at some different company. I slogged my way through it.

After talking to my parents, they were kind of asking how come I hadn’t gotten hired yet. It had been about 10 interviews so far. Surely they would have expected anyone to get hired after that many interviews. I told them that the US economy was in the toilet, good jobs are hard to comeby, and they market is hyper competitive. As a nation, we elected a socialist as a president. It wasn’t 1950s or 1960s America where GDP grew at an average of 4% per year. No, after the turn of the century, GDP growth was only half of what it used to be. My parents meant well however they were very out of touch with the labor market. They had been working on their own operation ever since the 1980s. Well, at least I was doing everything I could on my end.

Towards the end of March, my unemployment benefits were about to run out. I had only about a month worth of benefits left to collect. For a little while, I started considering other options. Some people recommended joining the military. The benefits were numerous and you could save a lot of money if you lived on base. There was just the downsides of having the risk of death and always having someone yelling in your face. It wasn’t an option I considered seriously. There were other government options though. The government had a program where volunteers would go overseas to help with projects in poor third world countries. This would mean digging wells, building houses, planting crops, and taking care of the sick. While I didn’t care about helping the poor or assisting third world nations, I did however consider the benefits. Should I decide to go abroad and pass some peace, my food and lodging would be taken care of. We would be living in the same conditions these villagers would be living in for a total of 27 months. This would be 27 months where my expenses would be cut down to practically zero dollars. The website also stated that volunteers would receive an adjustment bonus of almost $8000 upon successful completion of the assignment.

February 2013

For the month of February, I spent a total of $600.04. My premium for car insurance was $192. My rates decreased slightly. My premium for health insurance was $41.91. I spent $96.08 on gas by filling up my tank 3 times. I spent $40.07 on fast food by eating out 12 times. Each time I ate fast food, I typically just ordered off the value menu. I spent $35.90 at restaurants eating out with some friends. I purchased a phone card for $30.74 on a 120 minute bundle. I spent $30.59 on groceries. I bought some clothes for $10.69. I spent $15.67 on motor oil.

March 2013

For the month of March, I spent a total of $482.46. It was the first month I ever kept my expenses below $500. My premium for car insurance was $191. My premium for health insurance was $41.91. I spent $88 on gas by filling up my tank 4 times. I spent $55.78 on fast food by eating out 13 times. I spent $24 on restaurants by eating with some friends. I spent $23.53 on groceries. I spent $26.46 on clothes.

16 Painful Interviews (part 5)

A lot of online sources recommended buying some gold or silver. This was even some wisdom my old man gave to me back in 2011. Unfortunately, I scoffed at his advice and utterly rejected it. Back then, I only had about $15000 to my name. I had only been working for a year. In other words, I really didn’t have that much to lose. Back then, I really couldn’t see the value in precious metals. Should civilization end, I didn’t see what silver would do. If the power grid goes down and there is no more electricity, people will be raping and killing each other in the streets. When the world gets that bad, the most valuable investments will be commodities needed for survival. Food and water would become the new currency and you can’t eat silver.

Back when I was just starting out, I never went to my parents for financial advice. They were not the ones that showed me how to plan my life out on spreadsheets, keep track of all my expenses, and do everything I could to save as much money as possible. After graduating college, they had the aspirations that I would start my own business and become a made man that way. Unfortunately, they never gave me any real advice or ideas for starting or running a business. My dad kept on encouraging me to build some sort or building and sell products out of it. I’m sure he would have encouraged me to take on thousands upon thousands of dollars of debt and get started before even having an idea of how to make any money. They wanted me to take on a whole lot of risk for a shot of getting a decent reward.

My mom on the other hand told me that I was being foolish for not investing my money in the stock market. As much money as I was saving, she kept on telling me that all of it would devalue due to inflation. My counter argument was that I would keep my expenses down to as little as possible so that the effects of inflation wouldn’t be as harsh. Secondly and more importantly was the fact that the financial meltdown of 2008 happened and I had no faith or trust in the stock market. Thirdly, there was no investment that was safe and provided a good rate of return. It was my intentions to invest only in long term certificates of deposits which paid out a whopping two percent apy. At least they were FDIC insured.

Investing in some silver was a good idea. I just kind of wish that my dad could have explained it better than he did. Precious metals should be looked at as a sort of insurance rather than an investment. As the economic situation worsens, people will start to lose confidence in the dollar and try to look for an alternative currency. This is where gold and silver come into play. They are an alternate way to store wealth. Gold and silver are unique metals that don’t react with other elements. They will not perish easily. They have some practical usage in the electronics industry and they are used in luxury items such as jewelry. But the best reason I like gold and silver as an investment is the fact that the US government can’t dig out and mine gold and silver as easy as it can print US dollars. The supply of gold and silver will not be inflated crazily due to the mismanagement of politicians. As much as I wanted to buy some precious metals, I’d have to wait until getting employed again.   

16 Painful Interviews (part 4)

Being unemployed for a few months only helped to reinforce my decisions to never get married or have children. At this point, it was also making me reconsider my aspirations of buying a house. Ever since the financial meltdown of 2008, I always had this deep feeling that the world could end at any moment. Actually, that feeling started after the September 11th attacks however the financial meltdown just seemed to magnify the threat.

The United States spends more money than it collects in tax revenue each year. We have a total national debt greater than our GDP. Young people are either unemployed or underemployed. Also, trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities would eventually come due in the future. Social Security and Medicare are the programs that will eventually bankrupt our country. It is a very hostile environment to even consider marriage or children.

With $34000 in my bank accounts and no debt, I was lightyears ahead of the average America. Of course, the only way I could have such wealth was to keep my living expenses down to the bare minimum. For a man with a wife, children, mortgage, car note, and credit card debt, being out of work for as short as two months could feel like a death sentence. In my case, it was just a minor inconvenience. It was almost a vacation. However, there was always a possibility that things could get far worse.

During the time I was unemployed, I remembered two significant news events. The first was that some crazy lunatic went into an elementary school and shot some kids. The second, and far more concerning story, was the event that happened in the country in Cyprus. During the start of 2013, the country of Cyprus was experiencing some financial problems. The country was probably on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to remedy the problem, the government decided it would be a good idea to take a portion of the bank deposits of the citizens of Cyprus. Obviously, this lead to a panic and a run on the banks. I’m not completely sure how much money the average citizen lost however I heard accounts of people losing anywhere between 10% to 50% of the money in their bank accounts. What struck me so hard about this story was that if it could happen in Cyprus, how long would it be until it happened here?

I had put my life down on spreadsheets but having a portion or all of my assets was something I never accounted for. After doing some research online, it seems like bank haircuts or “bail ins” have happened before in several other European and South American countries. Here in the United States, we have a situation where we continuously spend more money than we make. It is a completely unsustainable system. Even in the news, there was talk about nationalizing retirement plans as early as the year 2000. With life being even more uncertain than I had anticipated, I wondered if there was anything I could do to protect myself.

16 Painful Interviews (part 3)

January 2013

For the month of January, I spent a total of $508.77. My premium for car insurance was $207.40. My premium for health insurance was $41.91. I spent $73.99 on gas by filling up my tank twice. I spent $31.51 on fast food by eating out 8 times. I purchased a new phone for $63.13. The phone I bought offered triple minutes for life. I bought it to save money in the long run on prepaid minutes as the old phone only offered double minutes. I spent $34.62 on groceries.

It was February and I had talked to or heard from Julia since December. I guess she just really didn’t want me anymore. I was certain that she found someone else. Nothing good would come from her but I’d talk to her if she decided to call me back. However, during the new year, I purchased a new phone. I had always used prepaid phone services and the phone I had been using gave me double minutes. During January, I found a prepaid phone that would give me triple minutes for life. I’d use the old phone until my service time expired which would be on April 14th 2013. After that, Julia would not be able to reach me. I deleted her number from my phone and I didn’t commit her number to memory. I did all of this to prevent myself from becoming a groveling simp. I couldn’t trust myself otherwise. The only way I could get in touch with her after April would be to go out of my way to talk to Ting.

Loneliness is one thing but hatred and depression was another. Repeated numbers of rejections and the utter waste of my time going to these interviews left me feeling incredibly spiteful. I was getting to the point where I was thinking I’d never become an accountant. The world was going to hell but part of me wanted to see it happen. I wanted to see everyone burn and die together. I had to remind myself that things weren’t so bad. After all, I had over $34000. I was still collecting some unemployment benefits so I wasn’t stressed for cash. When I wasn’t going to interviews or job searching, I had a good amount of time to skate, jog, lift weights, and play video games. There was even one girl that wanted to spend some time with me.

Her name was Allison. We knew each other in college and she actually reached out to me to have lunch sometime in November of 2015. I thought she was a cute girl and college and I kind of wanted to date her back in 2010 but it never worked out. With things going sour with Julia, I thought it would be nice to see if I could make something happen with Allison in the end of 2015. I never knew why she reached out to me but it seemed like dating was not her intention. She already had a boyfriend so I wondered why did she want to see me? Maybe she was using me as a backup incase things ever went south with her boyfriend. I had lunch with her twice or three times along and I enjoyed the conversations we had together. Unfortunately, every time after that, she always invited me to dinner with a group of four or five other of her friends. After the second or third time, it got pretty boring.

16 Painful Interviews (part 2)

Most likely, I screwed up getting both of these jobs because I was too eager to follow up with them. I had the impression that I was one of the first candidates to be interviewed for both positions because I was constantly spamming my resume to any new position I saw on the jobs databases. I called up both companies every few days to see if they made a decision. The first company told me they hired someone else and I might have offended one of the girls that interviewed me at the second company. She told me they took the hiring process very seriously and rejected me before even inviting me to the lunch.

Sometime during February, I got called into to a company for another interview. The company was one that specialized in reloadable prepaid debit cards. The position was for an accounts payable staff member and I think the salary was more than $30000 but less than $40000. Of course I was interested in the position, I wanted to get into anything that was in the accounting field. The interview was far less exhausting as I remember only talking to two people. The interview went on without anything memorable really sticking out.

Again, in February, I was called in for an interview for a staff accountant position. This time, it was for a major gas station. Over the phone, the guy told me that before having the interview, I’d take a quick accounting assessment and then he would show me around the corporate headquarters. Feeling incredibly apprehensive about taking an assessment, I had to ask him what were the topics that the assessment would cover. He told me that it would just be basic level topics. When he said basic level topics, I assumed that it would be only the topics that we would have covered in the level one accounting classes. When I got there and started taking the assessment, the questions started off pretty basic. Unfortunately, after 10 questions, they asked how to handle lease accounting and other topics that were covered in our advanced accounting courses. That bastard lied to me. As I went through the test, I became increasingly more and more pissed off as the test went on. Eventually, I said to hell with it, dropped the assessment on the desk, and just walked out. The lady at the front desk seemed a little confused and asked me if I had met with Carlos. That was the first and only time I ever rage quit an exam.

To close out the month of February, I got called in for a property tax position. The salary was not stated but I assumed that it would be roughly $45000. The company was a very small operation. It only had two employees. The boss of the organization said that they covered a very niche market. They assessed property taxes over anything from skyscrapers to nuclear reactors and that the job required a fair amount of travel. Out of all the job interviewers I ever had, this jackass stood out the most. When I went to all of my interviews, I always did my best to portray a certain amount of professionalism and I’d expect the same amount back. As soon as I talked to the guy, he looked over my resume and the first question he asked me was if I read any interesting novels lately. After 10 minutes, we covered topics such as his daughter, college, and the Vietnam War. After talking about the war, I was getting the feeling that the interview wasn’t going very well so I tried to steer him back on track by actually talking about the job position. Unfortunately, when I brought up the topic of work, this just seemed to bum him out. After 10 more minutes of his nonsense I just decided to try to cut through it all and ask if I could have the job. He just said he didn’t know and I decided to end it there. I said I’d follow up with him and just kind of left. Needless to say, I was contacted by these three organizations just to tell me my services were not needed.

16 Painful Interviews (part 1)

After New Year’s Day, things started to look up a bit. I got a phone call from a cost accountant at a company I had applied to. He told me that he was impressed with my resume and we had a 20 minute conversation over the phone. The company he was with was a manufacturing firm that produced fixtures and other components. They needed another cost accountant for the company. Over the phone, I told him that I had two years of work experience in non accounting jobs. While I wasn’t an accountant, I did have some experience using accounting software, reconciling balances, and sending payments. He was eager to set up an interview with me and I was happy to go. After I got off the phone, I looked through my records to identify the company and position I applied to. I was excited to see the position paid from $45000 to $55000.

I put on my suit and drove out to the work site a week later. That day, I was interviewed by three or four people of the staff there. I did my best to engage everyone of the staff members and asked really good questions. What were the day to day activities? Why was the position needed? What sort of software would I be using? How have employees been successful at the company? Was the company growing and expanding? I also answered all of their questions and told them how I took control of a few teams back in college and delivered good results. I told them I was a dedicated worker and was eager to learn how to become an accountant. By the end of the day, I had my hopes up but I knew it would be foolish to stop looking for work and wait to be accepted or rejected. I was proud of the fact that it was the first time I had ever been considered for an accounting position.

During the same week, I was contacted by a different company. The position was of a property tax manager and the job paid between $45000 to $55000. Again I was excited because I had never had a chance to make so much money before. The position wasn’t necessarily accounting related but it did require doing a lot of data manipulation and analysis. The ladies there told me that it was routine to receive large amounts of data and then manipulate the data into pivot tables in order to produce different calculations. Producing pivot tables was on part of the interview that hurt me because I had never made them before in spreadsheets. I did tell them that I was eager to learn and that I could pick up the skill pretty fast. During the same format, I interviewed with either three or four people that day. They proceeded to ask me the stock questions. Do you work well alone or in teams? How do you work under pressure? Are you good with meeting deadlines? Where do you see yourself in five years? Once again, I had to put on a show for them and tell them that I did work well in teams, perform well under pressure, and had the ambitions of perhaps getting advanced certifications in the future. It was so exhausting that by the time I met with the boss of the company, I just wanted to get out of there and go home. I asked him maybe three or four questions and he showed me the door. The ladies told me that myself and the other prospective candidates would be invited to a lunch to better get to know us. After the lunch, they would decide who to bring on aboard.

The seven month contract (part 14)

By the time my contract ended in October 2012, I had saved up a total of $34000. I was a free man again and I had the time to look for an opportunity. By the end of October, the staffing agency had another contract waiting to be filled. It was for the position of accounts payable clerk in a successful fast food restaurant. The restaurant is best known for their chicken sandwiches. It was a short contract lasting only three months but I was ready to take a paycheck anywhere. I dressed up in a suit and drove close to thirty miles just to get to the job site. When I got there, they handed me an assessment to complete before the interview started. I had 30 minutes to complete it. Most of it was basic and familiar however I had a little bit of difficulty remembering how to do adjusting entries. I handed the assessment in and waited.

After five minutes, a lady came out to tell me I had failed the exam and we could not go further with the interview. Immediately, I got pissed off and wanted to choke someone. I just drove 30 miles and wasted at least 3 hours of my day to go to this interview. We shared an awkward silence while riding the elevator down to the lobby. She asked me one question and I answered it with one word while giving her a look filled with the blistering hatred of a serial killer. My love for that restaurant died that day and I got a burger to eat on the way home. Unfortunately, the recruiters never found another position that I could qualify for. They specialized in staffing people with IT skills and I really didn’t have knowledge of coding, programming, or SQL. It was rare that they would get a flood audit around my location. With that first interview done, I was on my own and out to look for work again.

I had one interview in November. The company offered financing to people who wanted to buy new cars. It wasn’t a position I was excited about but I went just to get in the swing of things again and get comfortable with interviews. I really didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation with the boss and really I was just waiting for the interview to be over. After a painful 30 minutes, I left the office without any real expectations.

During December, I noticed that there were more job positions available. On job databases, I regularly saw positions for staff accountant and cost accountant present. I made sure to apply for all of them. I had close to two years of work experience so I’d might have a better chance of actually getting an interview. The world didn’t come to an end on December 21 and I made it through Christmas and New Year.

July 2012

For the month of July, I spent a total of $690.67. I was over budget but I wasn’t that concerned with staying in budget. I was only going to be employed for a few more months anyway. My insurance premium was $203.40. I spent $175 on gas by filling up my tank 7 times. I spent $63.85 on fast food by eating out 12 times. I spent $62.10 by taking Julia out to eat twice. I spent $60.38 on clothing. I got my haircut this month for $20.

August 2012

For the month of August, I spent a total of $728.22. I was still over budget but I was still not really concerned. My insurance policy renewed this month. To my dismay, my premiums didn’t decrease but the increased slightly. I spent $208 on my insurance premium. I spent $235.57 on gas by filling up my tank 7 times. I spent $49.48 on fast food by eating out 5 times. I spent $40.32 by eating some meals with friends. I spent $33.89 on groceries for this month. I bought a pair of shoes for $37.09. I spent $18.98 on oil filters for my car.

September 2012

For the month of September, I spent a total of $1091.19. I was way over budget. This was due to health care expenses. I spent $45 on an eye exam and $232.39 on a new pair of glasses. I spent $158 on a physical exam because I was committed to buying health insurance. My insurance premium was $207.40. I spent $201.07 on gas by filling up my tank 6 times. I spent $53.90 on fast food by eating out 9 times. I spent $40.36 eating out at restaurants with some friends. I spent $36.10 on groceries. I also spent $19.99 on a phone card for my prepaid phone.

October 2012

For the month of October, I spent a total of $691.86. My employment ended again yet I was still over budget. My insurance premium was $207.40. I spent $180.86 on gas by filling up my tank 6 times. I spent $61.58 on fast food by eating out 13 times. I spent $24.65 on groceries. I spent $40.75 eating at restaurants with some friends. I spent $80.74 on a 400 minute bundle for my phone. The 400 minutes became 800 minutes with my prepaid phone as it had the double minutes for life feature. I spent $49.80 on ink cartridges for my printer.

November 2012

For the month of November, I spent a total of $555.49. My premium for car insurance was $207.40. I paid two months of premiums for my health insurance which came out to be $104.10. I spent $42.74 on gas by filling up my tank twice. I was not driving very much this month. I spent $33.15 on fast food by eating out 8 times. During this time period, I wanted to get fast food just for the sake of getting something. Each purchase was relatively small. I spent $67.56 on the taxes and tags for my car. Related to my car, I also spent $15 on emissions. I bought a pair of knee pads for $23.29. I spent $10 on groceries. I only went out to eat with friends once this month and spent $11.96.

December 2012

For the month of December, I spent a total of $548.92. My premium for car insurance was $207.40. I spent $86.54 on gas by filling up my tank 3 times. I spent $20.19 on fast food by eating out 6 times. I bought a new skateboard deck for $59.26. I spent $26.01 at restaurants by eating out with friends.

The seven month contract (part 13)

The next day, I called her to see if she was alright. She was happy to hear from me and she said she was still a little sore from the previous day. The day afterwards is when the problems started. While sitting at work, I got the fear that I might have gotten Julia pregnant. It was somewhat irrational. After all, I made sure to use a condom and the protection did not slip off or break. I kept on getting the fear that some fluid might have slipped out. I got scared that she would bear a child. I had $30000 saved up so I wouldn’t be under the most pressure however my job would be ending in a few months. Nervously, I tried to do the math in my head and figure out if I could afford having a child. It was a very vulnerable situation. To help alleviate that fear, I reached out to Julia to make sure everything was okay. I didn’t bring up the issue but I just wanted to check for anything out of the ordinary. Towards the end of July, we met at a restaurant that was close to our work. Truth be told, I was just waiting to find out if she had her period or not. If she had, then I’d be in the clear. I never really found out when she had it, but I felt so relieved just seeing her again. At the end of dinner, I walked her to her car and, unexpectedly, she kissed me.

During August, our contract was starting to wind down. Most of my colleagues were starting to look for another job once the current one ended. I would have been actively searching however I did like the idea of taking a few months off after October. Our superiors told us that we would be able to qualify for unemployment once the project was over so I wasn’t to pressured to find work right away. I kept on wanting to do fun things with Julia while I didn’t have to worry about money. One thing I really wanted to do with her was take her to a skating rink and skate to pop music. I hadn’t done that since I was in middle school. I called Julia up and asked her to skate with me and she reluctantly agreed. There was a little bit of disappointment in her voice, I wasn’t sure why though. A minute later, she sent me a text saying that she didn’t want to go skating because she couldn’t stop thinking about having sex with me. Well okay, I couldn’t say no to that.

During the middle of August, she stopped by my house again. Immediately, we went up to my bedroom to have sex. Afterwards, she got a little moody. Something seemed a little off but I wasn’t sure what it was. When she was cooling down, she had her back facing me and I remember she had her face down in the pillows for quite some time. During the evening, we got dressed and ate at a nearby restaurant. When we got back home, we lounged around for a little bit until she had to go back home. As I walked her back to her car, I paused to kiss her goodnight but she just closed the door like she wanted to get out and get home quickly. I knew something was wrong at this point.

As the months went by, things really didn’t get any better. I don’t know what happened but it seemed like she lost interest in me or just didn’t really want me around anymore. During September, she moved into a new apartment and I visited her a few times until December. With her feeling so distant, I couldn’t help but to come to the conclusion that there was someone else involved. During the end of 2012, I was becoming too emotionally dependent on Julia. I was afraid of losing her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the situation ending well and the last thing I wanted to do was to be played for a fool. In December, I just stopped calling her. I figured that if she wanted to talk to me, she’d contact me.

The seven month contract (part 12)

“Want it back? Let us know.”

By God, it was the coolest bumper message I ever heard. I had the idea of sending a similar message to Julia so I sent her the following text.

Do you still want me?

I hit the send button and I was feeling pretty cool, almost like an action hero. Half a minute later, the phone rings and my heart freezes up. I picked up the phone and it was Julia. This was very unexpected, usually we just texted each other. Nervously, I answered and asked what was up. She immediately brought up the text message. Her voice was broken.

She called me out, I couldn’t back out of this. So I reiterated myself. I repeated the message. Do you still want me? Immediately, she backpedaled and hesitantly said that I wasn’t very romantic. Well, this really wasn’t the response I wanted to hear from her so I told her that I’d let her get some sleep and I’d call her some other time. The phone call lasted less than a minute. Half a minute later, my phone chimes and I read a text from her that asked if I was doing anything over the weekend. To which, I replied that I wasn’t and she could come over. It seemed very clear what she wanted.

That Saturday, I made sure to have the house to myself for the whole day. I had no plans set out. When she arrived, she was sitting on my couch next to me. To tease her a little bit, I was talking to her about this great place where we could get frozen custard. I got up and walked to the kitchen to look up the address. It didn’t take long for me to hear footsteps behind me and she grabbed me by the arm to stop me in mid step. She begged me to take her upstairs to my room.

We got !!!!!. I put on the !!!!!. I took my !!!!!! and !!!!!! it into her !!!!!!. I did this repeatedly.

Afterwards, we held each other close. She was everything I wanted. I adored her. But we were starting to get hungry so I took her to a restaurant sometime around six. After eating dinner, we spent some time at the park next to my house. It is hard to describe the feeling. I think it might be described as afterglow. But we were really content with each other and to be in each other’s presence. She looked at me and adored me just the same. As it got dark, we were in a part of the park where we could overhear some frogs croaking. It wasn’t the most romantic moment but I told her that we were sharing a special moment. We shared a kiss on the bridge with the frogs croaked. The night drew to a close and Julia drove home. I went to sleep thinking about her. I knew that we would have a relationship. I wanted her to tell me that she loved me.

The seven month contract (part 11)

Unfortunately, I back peddled like a coward and said no. I wasn’t intending on having sex with her tonight. I didn’t want to disappoint her though. I asked her if she wanted to have sex the last time we were in my bed and she said that she wanted it a little bit. She was swinging back and forth about what she wanted. The back peddling was tough and she said we probably shouldn’t do it. It would make things weird between the two of us. Whether she wanted sex or not didn’t make that much of a difference to me. I was holding her. I felt her skin against mine, and I could feel everything when I kissed her. It was enough for me. But then she went inert. She laid there with her back facing me. I wanted to keep her hot so I reached over to rub her left !!!!. She moaned at this. I then ran my hand down to her legs to touch her !!!! and she squeezed my hand with her thighs as soon as I touched it. After that, I took my hand and brushed it over her butt until I touched her !!!! on the other side. As soon as I touched it, she forced her butt into my !!!!!. I repeated this pattern for a few minutes.

She was very hot and started to embrace me again. When things heated up, she looked at me and told me that she was on her period. I told her that I wouldn’t going to have sex with her tonight. I wasn’t trying to. Just as well, my parents were going to be home in a while. This wasn’t the evening I had planned. I was intending to be at the fireworks display with Julia.

She kept on getting hotter and rilled up to the point where she asked me if I could call my parents and ask them to just stay away and not come home so soon. I called them but unfortunately, they were already on the way home. Just as well, Julia was on her period.

Our romance was cut short but we moved down to the living room and held on to each other for a little while longer. As it got late, I walked Julia back to her car. When she opened her door we both heard a whistle and looked to the right. One of my neighbors shot a firework into the air and we both watched it pop into a display of light. At least we got to see one firework. I thought to myself that I should probably give her a kiss. But as soon as I looked to the left, her lips were on mine.

The next few days at work were rather uneventful. It was business as usual. I got home at 5 pm one night and I was just sitting on the sofa watching tv. I thought about something cool I saw on tv earlier that year. On April 1st of 2012, one of the television stations brought back a programing block that went off the air in 2008. The programing block was famous for running lots of action cartoons. Anime in particular was popular on the station. I’d watched the programming block back in 2001 when I was still in middle school and it left a big impact on me. It was said to see it go offline when I was in college. After bringing the programming block back for April Fools Day, there was speculation about the block coming back permanently. While watching tv, I saw a bumper that said the following.

The seven month contract (part 10)

Whenever I could, I usually liked to include an innuendo somewhere. At one point in time, she told me that she really liked cotton candy. Before she visited me at my house, I ran out to the gas station to pick up a carton of cotton candy. When we were together, I told her to close her eyes and open her mouth because I was going to put something sweet and sticky inside. The amount of discomfort she experienced was priceless. She kept on worrying that I was going to do something dirty to her but I kept telling her that it was just cotton candy. She kept on repeating that it was lies and I wasn’t holding a carton of cotton candy. When she finally opened her eyes, she was overwhelmed by relief as I stuck a tuft of the candy in her mouth.

However, I did have the intention of doing something naughty with Julia. After watching the firework display, I had this idea of giving her a full massage. Of course, I wanted to put my hands on her again. She arrived at my house with a movie she wanted to watch with me. It was a parody movie of a blaxploitation movie from the 1970’s. Before watching the movie, I drove the both of us down to the grocery store to pick up a little food. I made sure to pick up a carton full of strawberries and a can of whipped cream. I also wanted to pick up the massage oil to use on Julia however I couldn’t think of a way to shoo her away for a minute. So, she followed me down the aisle and we were looking at different lubricants, jellies, and contraceptives. It was an awkward moment which I made more awkward by picking up a large container of lubricant. After looking at the price tag, I set it down and decided not to mention it further. I was pretty sure Julia was feeling uncomfortable at the moment.  

Back at the house, we were watching the movie. It was a comedy and full of jokes so we were both laughing throughout. It really wasn’t the kind of movie that you would watch while feeding your girlfriend cream topped strawberries. But, I did so anyway. By the time the movie had ended, I was about to go look up the time for when the firework display would start but Julia said she had a headache and went upstairs to rest on my bed. For some reason, I had a feeling that she really didn’t have a headache. Once again, Julia was going to throw off my plans. We might not make it to see the fireworks display. I sat downstairs and waited for a little while. There was a small chance that Julia really did have a headache.

When the time was right, I walked up to my room to see her wrapped up in the sheets. I crawled in next to her. We hugged but she asked me to cut out the nonsense and ask why I was thinking about buying lubrication at the store. I really didn’t want to divert the question so I just told her that I wanted to massage her. She wasn’t too fond of the idea, but despite what she said, we were still squeezing each other. I was on top of her and was getting ready to kiss her when she then asked me if I wanted to have sex with her. It was unexpected but it shouldn’t have been. While I didn’t realize it at the time, I was pressing my right against her pelvis.

June 2012

For the month of June, I spent a total of $772.38. I was $200 over budget but I felt okay because this was the most money I ever made in a single month. Because this month had 3 pay periods, I took home over $3000 after taxes. My insurance premium was $203.40. I spent $213 on gas by filling up my tank 8 times. I spent $79.63 on fast food by eating out 9 times. I spent $116.06 eating at restaurants with my friends. $60.92 of this amount was when I bought my friend dinner and got him drunk for his birthday. $30 of this amount was spent getting pancakes at a pancake house.$20.90 of this amount was buying chocolate fondue for myself and Julia. I spent $19.99 on a 20 minute bundle for my prepaid phone.

The seven month contract (part 9)

When we got up to my bed, she was sprawled all over me. Actually, she was poised like a cat. I had my hands on her thighs and when I moved them up to squeeze her butt, she would arch her back and push her face into mine. We crawled over each other and rolled with each other to shift positions from top to bottom. There was a point when I bent down to kiss her and then she pulled me down and started to suck my breath out. She asked me to take my shirt off and then I took hers off as well. She wanted to have sex. I wanted to have sex. But I didn’t plan for any of this. I didn’t have any protection available but more importantly was that my parents would be back after a certain amount of time. The last thing I would want to happen was to have sex interrupted by my parents getting home. We didn’t undress further but we kept holding each other. I was happy with what we were doing, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t quell the thought of going for penetration.

My parents got home and Julia and I got dressed again. The were quite happy to meet Julia and she helped my mom bring in some groceries. When we were alone again, I was holding her in my arms again and I was stroking her legs. She wasn’t my girlfriend but we had just almost had sex an hour earlier. And hour before that, I was looking at Julia with scorn and hatred and waiting for her to leave. On top of all that, we never did get around to buying guitars and learning how to play them. But I guess none of that mattered now. I was here with Julia. That’s all I needed. I wanted to be her boyfriend. But doing that would go against how I planned out my life. The night ended and she was on her way back home. I walked back into the kitchen and finished the last of the curry that was still leftover in the pot.

June was coming to a close. At work, we went to a staff meeting where we got a critical update. A lot of the mortgages were stacked and reviewed improperly. As a result, the auditing company would need more time to complete the audit. Originally, our contract was going to end in July but we were granted a three month extension. I’d have work until October. By this point in time, I had saved up about a total of $30000. Things were looking pretty good. At work, we were given extra mortgages to work through and I felt somewhat engaged. July 4th was approaching and I would get the day off. Since Julia would have the day off as well, I had a plan for something we could do together. I really wanted to watch the firework display with her downtown. As a bonus, I could send an innuendo to her in a text message. I told her we could end the night with fireworks.

The seven month contract (part 8)

I think it was a Tuesday so I had enough time to work with. To keep true to my word, I had to call her by Saturday. I really didn’t know where to take things next. I didn’t even think I was going to get as far as I did. This was all uncharted waters. What I wanted was to just spend a day with her. Maybe we could cook something together. We hadn’t done that before so it would keep things interesting. It was also cooperative and that was the biggest thing I was going for.

By the time Saturday arrived, I made sure to call her. When she picked up, she was in a good mood. She was actually in the middle of eating a meal with some of her friends. I had this idea that we would just spend the day together doing as much fun stuff that I could think of. We’d cook some food, play some games, and go to a pawn shop to pick up some used guitars and try to learn how to play them. She was up for it.

We met at a Korean supermarket to pick up some ingredients. She really enjoyed curry so we purchased spicy curry blocks, an onion, and some noodles. Back at my house, we started to prepare the dish. While doing this, I kept on telling her anecdotes just to make her laugh. Eventually I started talking about how I thought fat girls were really gross and she took great offense to this. She used to be fat growing up through high school and she thought it was really hurtful. I didn’t want to apologize for what I said so I just tried to divert the conversation somewhere else. Unfortunately, I just made things worse and offended her ever more by suggesting that the two of us would eventually become a couple.

She called me a real jerk and said the two of us would never get together. At this point, I just stopped. Everything I seemed to do was making it worse, there was no sense in doing anything else. I blew it. She was going to eat her curry and then leave, and I would never call her or talk to her again. Everything I had done with her up to this point of time had been an utter waste of time. For a moment, I looked at her with scorn and hatred. I said nothing and just laid back on the sofa. I said nothing further. I was just waiting to for her to leave.

After a few painful moments, she looked at me and said she was sorry. I didn’t care though. We got up and went to the kitchen to get our food and we started to eat the dish. Still feeling a little hurt, she sat close right next to me so that her arm was brushing against mine. Actually, she was pressing her left side into my right side. I was still kind of mad at her but I didn’t push her away. I just ate some of the noodles. After a minute or two, I did my best to just try to force some conversation. I just asked her a question or two about some movies. When we finished our curry, we set the plates down on the coffee table. She was still pressing herself against me. I had to think about it for a moment. She was right there and she wanted my affection. Maybe I should just let it go. I took my right arm and just placed it around her. As soon as I did so, she wrapped herself around my chest and she was soon resting herself on top of me. While we held each other tight, I could feel her slowly start to squeeze me and I’d squeeze her when I felt it coming. The two of us shifted for a bit and she said it was hard to get comfortable. At that point, I suggested that my bed had more room and we would be more comfortable there.

The seven month contract (part 7)

The next time that I saw her was about a week or two later in June. There was a burger joint that she had mentioned before and I met her there. This was the very next time I saw her so I really didn’t know how to bring up the night we kissed. Even worse was that I was running out of things to talk about with her. Several times throughout our meal, the conversation went dead silent. Usually, when that would happen, I would just smile and look directly into her eyes. I was okay at handling awkward moments however she absolutely couldn’t maintain eye contact with me. Every time I did this to her, she would start looking away, covering her face, or try to break the silence. She even told me that she had to look at my cheek or chin when talking to me. Anywhere except the eyes. Needless to say, I would like to look directly into her eyes a lot just to pester her. After finishing our burgers, we were about to part ways for the night. I remember being there with her for only 45 minutes or maybe one hour. I seemed too quick, I didn’t want it to be over. I just kept wanting to be with her.

Right next to my car, I looked at her and I told her that she looked like she wanted something from me. She looked at me sort of bewildered and told me she didn’t understand what I was talking about. I decided to press it a little bit further. So teasingly, I told her that if she wanted something, she should ask for it. I told her that if she didn’t ask for it, she might not get it. Apparently, she had enough of my nonsense because at that moment she just turned around and started walking away. She said nothing. It looked like I messed that up badly. The previous night when we kissed meant nothing. I had taken things as far as it could go. At least it was fun. I did get more than I ever asked for or expected. All I ever expected to do with that woman was to have Mexican food with her once and never see her again. Coincidentally, the restaurant where I first met her at was right across the street from this burger joint.

I got in my car and started driving away. I was somewhat disappointed but it was as good a place to end things. After a few traffic lights, my phone started to ring. I never like to use the phone while driving so I just ignored it. But after a minute, I started to worry if maybe it had been Julia that called. As soon as I had the chance, I found a parking lot to pull over in and looked at my phone. Surely enough, it was Julia so I had to call her back. She picked up the phone and she had some emotions that she had to get off her chest. It is hard to remember what she said but I think she was feeling bad that she didn’t talk about our previous night together. She really had to get those feelings off of her chest. Whatever she did say, I couldn’t pay much attention to. My heart was racing and my hands were shaking a little bit. After she was done talking, I asked her if there was anything else she wanted to tell me. This confused her and she said she told me everything that she wanted to tell me. And I didn’t want to sound silly or ridiculous so I did the only thing I could think of. I needed to buy some more time. I told her that I would call her at the end of the week and wished her a good night.