First job out of college (part 14)

It was going to be the last time that I would see her… again. I was out of work and I knew that I would feel like kind of a loser after being unemployed for a certain amount of time. After graduating college, it took me four months to get legitimate work and I didn’t believe the job market got any better. I had no idea how long it would take to find work again but at least this time I had over $20000 in my bank on hold out with. Still, despite the cash, I felt like Julia wouldn’t respect me as much being unemployed. For that reason, I thought that this last outing would be a good stopping place.

The time that I spent with Julia was some of the happiest that I could remember being in the last several years. She had a somewhat abrasive personality and she did swear frequently but she was a girly girl underneath that. It wasn’t difficult to make her laugh and she was very compassionate. She even offered to get me a job at her worksite when I told her the great news that I was going to lose my job. I refused her offer only for the reason that I did not want to do more customer service for the life of me. She even kept talking to me after I tried to teach her how to ride a skateboard. She was doing pretty well until the point where she fell over and smacked her head on the ground… twice.

It was a very simple outing. There was a public park that has a giant granite hill. We would climb to the top, look at some other attractions in the park, and get some food afterwards. When I saw her, she was kind of angry at me though. She told me I was a real jerk for not telling her that my birthday passed a few weeks earlier. To celebrate my 24th birthday, she gave me a present box that had a few gifts in it. She also handed me a cupcake with a candle on it and lit the candle. Lastly she blew up a balloon and made a balloon animal for me. I never had any girl do this sort of thing for me before. To make her laugh, I started to take bites out of the cupcake without blowing the candle out first.

I was ready to take her out to the park. We were both sitting in my car so I put the key in the ignition, turned it to the left, and the car turned on. And then the car turned itself right off. This was bad. After fidgeting with the key for a few moments and almost getting the key stuck, my car was immobilized. Even after trying to jump start the vehicle, it was going nowhere. In November, my car died in a parking lot and required a jump start to get moving again. I figured the problem was the old battery so I made sure to replace the battery right before meeting up with Julia. As it turned out, my alternator was dead. December 2011 was when I started regularly experiencing car issues and maintenance fees. The cost to tow the car and repair it would eventually run past $400 or $500 that month. Well, at least I didn’t have to worry about showing up to work on Monday.