Greyhound Tales

Spring break. What to do? South Padre Island? Miami? Mexico? When you have JUST arrived in the US and know that you don't have school for a week and aren't sure what to do, all you need is a friend who is as crazy as you and you will have fun.

I loved and still love traveling. The first spring break we had, Prasanna and I decided to try our hand at travelling, on a greyhound bus.
Dude there are only Kallus in greyhound busses. You guys will get mugged. Where are you going to sleep? It is going to take so long. You are not going to have enough money. Were the comments we heard for about 2 weeks. When everyone realized that we were going to do it, they started becoming supportive.

To take care of the money thing, we found a student deal – travel anywhere a greyhound goes for 200$ for 1 whole week.

To take care of the sleep thing, we decided to go to Detroit, Chicago and Cincinnati, where we had friends/ family.

To take care of the mugging, we both had hoodies.

We both were like Kallus anyway, so no issue.

We look at routes, places, schedules and finally decided to leave Dallas one night at 00:05 towards Arkansas.
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Dallas,+TX,+United+States&daddr=Little+Rock,+AR,+United+States+to:Memphis,+TN,+United+States+to:Nashville,+TN+to:Indianapolis,+IN+to:Cincinnati,+OH+to:Detroit,+MI,+United+States+to:Chicago,+IL,+United+States+to:Dallas,+TX&hl=en&ll=37.596824,-89.912109&spn=11.915265,23.269043&sll=37.492294,-89.978027&sspn=11.931867,23.269043&geocode=FYuI9AEdfWg7-ilLl0V79xlMhjGPZ0f2pJvsuQ%3BFXEwEgIdxcV_-imbVh-hNKHShzEXW_MNEPUFNA%3BFd5WGAIdLPah-ilFl0PqHn7VhzH-thpgFfOT0Q%3BFQvcJwIdm8rT-ik9kOsTMuxkiDGg2umh0Lk_fQ%3BFcTRXgIdBlXd-ikDanmn_1BriDF86rlA9p2O1g%3BFY6qVAId7HL2-in5ITjesVFAiDEXk8Dki377aQ%3BFSPthQIdhtIM-yl1HcsQAcokiDHSxLk1ToZ2Vw%3BFWICfwIdGuDG-inty_TQPCwOiDEAwMAJrabgrw%3BFYuI9AEdfWg7-ilLl0V79xlMhjGPZ0f2pJvsuQ&oq=Dallas,+TX,+United+States&mra=ls&t=m&z=6



DAY 1
Naresh dropped us off at the bus station, didnt want to get down since it was DOWNTOWN and drove away. No cell phone. Knew only a few number by heart, and thats all that mattered.
We got onto the bus, the bus left at 00:05 sharp and quickly, we fell asleep. When we woke, the bus was in Little Rock Arkansas (Bill Clinton was president at the time), so we brushes and washed up at the grey hound station and went for a walk. We had breakfast at some cafe and took some pictures near the capitol. We also go one of the politicians to take a photo of me and PDX on the steps of the capitol. He had initially thought that we wanted our photo WITH him and had refused, when he realized what we wanted, he came back, left his briefcase on the ground and took our photo.
We left Little rock in the early afternoon and reached Memphis early evening. We walked around a bit, found a hard rock cafe, where we bought some mementos. We then watched some of the street performers perform tumbling and jumping tricks on the streets. There were also a lot of musicians singing/ playing instruments on the road which we enjoyed watching. We then had a hearty dinner and headed out to the Nashville.

DAY 2
We reached Nashville early in the morning and slept in the greyhound station for a while.
It was COLD in Nashville and I then realized that I had left my glove in Naresh’s car and had to walk around with my hands in my pockets all morning long. We walked around a bit, saw a bridge, some parts of downtown and then found a nice restaurant and had a nice big breakfast before heading back to the greyhound station.
We headed to Indianapolis. We realized when we reached there that it was St. Patricks day. There was a big parade that we got to watch as we were having lunch. We walked around a bit and saw the colt stadium, pacers stadium and spent some time in downtown.
Our next destination was Cinncinati, where Ajay, my friend picked us up from the greyhound station. He worked for GE in downtown and it was easy for him to pick us up. Ajay took us to a hole in the wall fantastic food Chineese restaurant where we BELTED. We then headed back to Ajay’s apartment and my cousin Vivek, who was studying Medicine came to visit and had ice cream with us.

DAY 3
Ajay dropped us off in the morning and we headed to Detroit. The greyhound bus went to Dayton, Ohio, where we got down and went to the aero museum. We then caught another bus later that afternoon and headed to Detroit.
We reached Detroit in the evening where we met Prasanna’s friend Santosh and my friend Ballal. Just like Dallas, the boys didn’t want to get down from the car in Detroit and so, we jumped into their car and drove off to their college apartment. We reached there on Day3 @ night and stay up late catching up, and went to bed late.

DAY 4
Went around their school campus. Played some tennis. Relaxed a bit at home. Watched some classic Md. Ali fights and ate and drank and pigged out.

DAY 5
Another relaxing day in the apartment, went around the campus a bit more, went to Ballal's professor's house which Ballal was house sitting and then got dropped off at the greyhound station in the late evening. We were on the overnight bus from Detroit to Chicago.

DAY 6
Reached the Chicago Greyhound station around 530am and called Vidya, Senior @ UVCE and UTA and she had some friends pick us up and take us to their apartment. Also met Deepak – a.k.a Kaadu (super senior @ UVCE and UTA) and a few other of their friends. We left to see downtown Chicago late morning, after belting some Giordanos pizza and got to see Dewon (deewan) street, the skyline view from the aquarium, jordan's restaurant, tall tall building and then got dropped off at the Greyhound station.

DAY 7
in da BUS! All the way from Chi town to D-town to A-town. Phew.
Was glad to see Naresh when we got back.
I think we used up 7 rolls of film and did a total of over 2500 miles :)

We got to sit in separate seats except for the first leg, from Dallas to Lil Rock. The buses were empty and it was very comfy and I was able to sleep on all journeys. From the time the bus gets onto the interstate, to the time when it slows down at the destination, exiting the interstate, I slept most times :). 

Would like to do this travel again sometime if time permits :).

Will write about my 1 Amtrak experience some other time :)

American Airlines

American Airlines had their hub in DFW (Dallas FortWorth). They had a software company called Sabre that handled a lot of their logistics, databases, time management, time tracking software etc and they would also sell and customize the software for other airlines.
Since UTA had a good computer science department, a lot of graduating students would get jobs at Sabre.
Sabre had great benefits for their employees (D1 tickets, where they could fly anywhere in the US for free if there were empty seats) and friends (D3 tickets, where you could fly anywhere in the US for 60$ a flight!!!) and family (D2 tickets, where you could fly for free anywhere in the US if seats were available).
Naani/ Kiran/ Kishore and a bunch of other seniors of mine worked at Sabre and enjoyed these benefits greatly and were kind enough to share the D3s with me now and then.
The funniest incident was when Vidya gradauted and was moving from UTA to Chicago to work for Motorola, we had 3 cars (Vijays, Naanis and Naresh's cars) go to the airport to drop her off at the airport, along with a bunch of us who were going to see Vidya off. She was on the 3pm flight.
There were empty seats in the flight, so Naani, Kiran, Kishore, and Prathiba all decided to fly to Chicago to see Vidya off! Naani left his car in the airport and they were off to Chicago!
They came back late that night, brought back Naani's car and came back home!
50$ to England, 35$ to south america etc were some of the fantastic fares that were offered and used by the folks at Sabre.
I visited my family in Pittsburgh a couple of times using D3s and flew to a couple of other places as well.
When the software industry had a recession in 2000, D3s and D2s were withdrawn and they had restrictions on D1s as well.

American Airlines, still had good deals with their NetSAAver emails on Tuesday morning. Fly out on a Friday or Saturday and come back on a Sunday or a Monday to some places for 99$. There would be a limited number of seats. You had to register your email ID with AA and they would send out an email Tuesday mornings @ 6 and the tickets would be sold out most times before noon.

We flew to Missouri/ Colorado/ New Mexico/ Pittsburgh and Boston on these fantastic NetSAAver deals.

As DFW was the hub, most times I flew AA since there was better deals and connectivity and ended up racking up quite a few miles (travelled some 8 times in 2004 and 12 times in 2005 for work along with several personal trips). In 2006, before moving back, we used up all our miles and got 2 free tickets to see family in Pittsburgh.

Delta House

I loved driving/ riding with friends around town seeing the houses and the fact that most times each house is different from the other. Even when I travelled, I enjoyed house seeing.
The first house I saw in the US was my aunt's home in San Fransisco way back in 1984 when we had gone for a visit and I was in awe of the carpet all over the house. The multiple floors in the house (we had just 1 floor in our home in India and so did most family and friend's house). A nice big garage with tools on a big wooden board at an uncles home in Denver. A basement and 2 floors at my aunt's home in Pittsburgh. It almost felt like I needed a map to get around the houses. I guess I was a lot smaller too then, so everything seemed bigger ;)

When I went back to the US in 1998 to study, all the people I knew were living in apartments. Friends who were working, friends who were studying and some friends who had just graduated and starting jobs.

The apartments were also nice - carpet in all rooms, big living area, some had nice balconies and all had swimming pools which was very useful in the Texas summers. Only in around 2000 did I start seeing friends move into houses - think of moving into larger, fancier apartments, start renting houses etc. I had thought about moving into a house with friends, but school loans, car loans etc and the fear of having a big 30 year loan were some of the reasons I didn't move to a house.
I shifted 8 times in the 8 years I was in the US. The last one being from an apartment to another apartment in the same floor, across the hall actually. So all I did to move was to open both doors and swing and throw things across the hallway.

I lived with 3 other roomies at school in a 2 bedroom apartment initially. Rent was around 100$ a month. I then moved to a friend's apartment where I slept on the couch for a month, before we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment. He got married a few months later and I had the two bedroom apartment all to myself. I then moved into a single bedroom apartment in the same apartment complex, then to a 2 bedroom apartment in the same complex (it worked out cheaper since they had some sweet summer deal), after which I moved into a HOUSE. The DELTA HOUSE.

A friend of mine from soccer, Rik, was living in this OLD house (over 100 years old now) with a couple of his friends and they were moving out, right about the time my lease was expiring at the apartment, and since Rik was also a sports geek, it made sense for me to move into the delta house. The delta house was on a real quiet street, with large old trees, older neighbors and was a very quiet neighborhood. The delta house, though, had its fair share of parties and police officer visits to help keep the noise level low and non quiet madness....

The delta had wooden flooring, wooden stairs that led to a single bedroom upstairs, had a ping pong table at the first living room, had a second living room where we watch tv a lot, had a music room with carpet flooring and curved roofs to improve acoustics (the lady who built the house taught music and had this room to teach her students the piano), a kitchen with a gas heater for the winter, 2 bedrooms and a single bathroom on the ground floor.
There was a wonderful back porch and a huge backyard with a brick grill.
There was also a basement which was dark and was used to store junk.

The first time I visited the delta was I think in 2000, when a Bender was being held. They had a shot block (block of ice 2'X3'X4' with carved grooves from which shots were poured down and you would have to stick your mouth at the end to get a cold shot. The shot would be chosen based on which drink a disc you rotate landed on), lots of barbecue, burgers, and a ton of food. We were there till the party ended and that was when all my friends first heard an Indian say "Luke I am your father".
I loved the house and went to a couple other parties there as well and really liked the neighbour hood it was in. The zoo was close by. Downtown was 2 miles away. The colonial golf course was around the corner. The river was a hop step jump away.

So when Rik asked me if I wanted to move in, I jumped at the offer.
I had to get a couple of things fixed at the delta - put a 2 man papasan on the front porch. Fixed the fan on the front porch. Got the mosquito door fixed to my room. Got the locks fixed in my room, so I could come and go thru the separate door to my room. Got the AC repaired and I was good to go.

It was just Rik and me initially at the delta house and Cleigh (a.k.a Noodles) joined us in a couple of months. That was when we had our first party there. Goodbye J, Hi Cleigh was the title of the party and Noodles made a nice poster for the party and it was a blast.

Rik was very organized and sent out excel sheets of who owed who how much for electricity, water and rent and we all paid him by cheque. We had one car park and took turns parking in the drive way under the covered parking, while the two others parked either in the drive way or on the street.

We did our own dished. We had shelves for each of us for our food in the fridge and also had separate detergents for our laundry. It was a simple system and I think worked really well for boys :).

There were 3 of us and just 1 restroom, but worked out well for us as we all went to work at different times. In the summer, it got HOT, but fans in each room (including the living rooms) + ACs in each of our rooms helped keep the place cool. I bought a few timers that were programmed to turn the AC on in my room at 4, since I got home at 430 and it would be 100 degrees in the summer.

In the winter, there was a gas heater in the kitchen that had to be lit from the basement and Rik would light it once each year. I bought a heater for my room in the winter and it worked out well for me.
Rik's band BENDER practiced in the music room at the delta house, after placing several mattresses on the doors and closing all the windows as our neighbors were quiet people and we thought they wouldn't want to be disturbed.

BENDER was real popular the time that I stayed at the Delta, and they kept all the equipment here, so I would often help move the speakers, guitars, etc to and from the delta house and would get free entry into the place where they were playing as I could say "I'm with the band" :).

Sitting out in the front porch on the papasan, keeping my room door open, but the mosquito door closed, while playing some music and watching the rain was something I LOVED doing when it rained. In the winter too, it was nice to sit on the porch and relax. Summers were a bit too hot to sit in the porch, but the rest of the seasons were great.
There was also a short wall on which people could sit all around the porch and talk. That was a common hang out place for Rik Bubba Noodles and me to talk about some of our war stories, about religion, politics and a bunch of other fun stuff.

After Noodles moved in, we would almost daily have ping pong matches and Noodles would always try his FUNKY serve to try and hit the EDGE of the table and win the point on the serve itself! All 3 of us being sports guys (Noodles Swam for TCU - Rik was serious into Volleyball and I was a serious Basketball player), it was fun to play ping pong, watch NFL or NBA and yell and scream at the TV.

There was always beer in the fridge and Gatorade as well.
Friends would always drop by and we used the grill a lot in the summer as we threw some sausages, pre-marinated chicken or steaks at the begining of the month after we had just gotten our salaries and had some friends over and chatted over dinner.
Citronella candles and bamboo lamps were what we used to get rid of the mosquitos.
I would also often (mostly once a week) have co-workers over for an early breakfast - pancakes/ waffles/ sausage/ bacon etc before heading out to work.

I would also sometimes cycle thru some back roads to the path that led to the trinity, which would allow me to cycle to work. Work was close and coming home for lunch was also a nice perk. Sneak in a nap sometimes, or just relax and watch sports center before heading back to work. The wooden floors gave it a charm and the history behind the house was nice to hear.
One of the fireplaces was painted red white and blue when the original Delta residents (Luke/ John and Rik) moved in, right after 9/11.

The trees were old and we had to get the branches trimmed a couple of times when I was there. The road was tarmac once when I was there. We got to know some of the neighbors and it was nice living in the Delta house.

We once had a mouse in our house and we tried all sorts of tricks - mouse trap with cheese/ with peanut butter; rat paper with peanut butter etc but never caught him. When Rik was out of town once, I walked into the  kitchen and saw what looked like a coiled up toy snake on the counter next to the stove, and walked right past it thinking "I wonder when Rik put the snake on the counter". A second later I looked back and saw it hissing and quickly disappeared behind the stove. The snake hunter/ pest guy came but said that he can catch it only if he can see it. He went downstairs and said that the rats (RATS? We had just one MOUSE buddy!!!) were the reason why the snake came. I never saw the mouse again, I never saw teh snake again as well. That night tho, I slept with 1 eye open, a pillow at the foot of the door to prevent even AIR from entering my room and woke up several times. When Rik returned, we cleaned up the basement, we tried unsuccessfully to burn down the old carpet that was thrown down there and sent up smoke 40feet high. We had to quickly douse the fire and take the carpet in a friends truck to a dumpster and throw it in quickly.

I had a great time at the delta house and really enjoyed the quiet time, the party time, as well as the deep conversation times there.

Encounters with the cops

I have had a few encounters with the cops in the US. Nothing worthy of the show "cops", but its exciting times for me :).
My first interaction with the cops was a funny one. We had planned to surprise Naresh, one of my seniors at UTA by having 10-15 people at his apartment, while one of us had him out of the apartment and then bring him back to the apartment just after midnight! We didn't have cell phones at the time, so we were all coordinating thru land lines to get the assigned person to take him out of the apartment around 1115, so we had 45 minutes to gather everyone, decorate and have things ready to surprise him.
I was one of the people hiding in the apartment right before midnight, when we heard a knock on the door. We were all quiet and when the door opened, we all screamed "surprise" and saw a cop with one hand on his gun and one hand with a flash light shining at us! We were all shocked and I think the cop was more surprised and upset. We had to explain to the that this was a surprise party for a friend who's birthday it was. Neighbors had heard a lot fo commotion and people running up and down the stairs and had called the cops being unsure of what the noise was about!
I think one of us also had a big knife in our hand as we planned to have him use that to cut the cake. Luckily the cops knew that the surprise party was a common thing in India and realized that we were innocent graduate students, just doing the usual surprise party :).

The first time I was stopped by the cops was for speeding. I was in my final semister at UTA and was also working in FortWorth. I would wake at 630, be at work at 730. Work till 430, drive to college and do some thesis work till around 10, drive back home by 1030-11 and go to bed. It seemed to me like I was driving a lot, and so I also found that I was speeding as well. One day, I was driving to college and saw the guy in front of me hit his brakes and switch lanes. I accelerated and saw the cop :). I was pulled over and given my first ticket. I always felt that the cops were just doing their job and actually helping me out by telling me to go slow. Paying the 100$ though was a pain. The second time I got a speeding ticket was just a mile from home when I was driving down a neighborhood I went past twice a day. Right when we approached the big slope down, I accelerated and the cop was standing right there and again pulled me over. This was right after I had deposited a 100$ cheque for something I had won. All my winnings went to the cops :).
My funniest speeding ticket was in New Mexico when I was going maybe 10 miles above the speed limit (the limit was 90 and there was NO ONE... I mean NO ONE on the road). I had set cruise control for 90 and would sometimes accelerate and suddenly once a cop was right behind me. He pulled me over to the side and came to the right side of the car. I lowered the window and he said "Where is the fire?" So I said "There is no fire officer". He said "OK good. I thought you guys were going so fast to go help put out a fire". He asked me to step outside the car, chatted for a while, but ultimately gave me a ticket as well :(.

House party in Portland, house party in Arlington, house partys in FortWorth all had cops show up because we were too loud. I guess I did have a good time in the US :)

Krispy Kreme

I have always been a "sweet" person, having liked all kids of sweets, even as a child. I always blame it on genes. My dad also loves sweets and enjoys them as much, if not more than me.
During my first job in the US - on campus job with the catering services team, I "discovered" Italian creme cake, carrot cake, cheese cake and started enjoying them all.
I was never a huge donut fan, since it seemed like they were too dry, whereas I liked fresh creme cakes and pastries which didn't seem so dry. UNTIL......
We were driving to Walmart on Cooper street and saw the right most lane had a huge line of cars and cops were directing traffic. The line was around 40-50 cars long and there was a sign that said HOT DONUTS/ KRISPY KREME. As we passed the store, I could see 75-100 people standing in line at the store, waiting to get in.
At school the next day, everyone was talking about this donut place and I was offered a ride to check out this place. The line was a lot shorter and on going into the store, I saw what all the madness was about. Donuts were coming hot right out of the assembly line in front of our eyes. They had a machine that laid the dough onto a conveyor chain which went up and down (allowing the dough to rise), before going through a hot oil bath, which fried one half of the donut. The conveyor then had a flipping mechanism which flipped the donut to allow the other half of the donut to also get fried. It then went on a flat portion of the conveyor, where the excess oil dropped and lastly, where was donut went thru the wall of glazing, to become a HOT GLAZED DONUT.
My eyes were wide open and I was waiting to get my teeth into one of these donuts, when we found out that they were giving each person who came into the store a free one! I LOVE AMERICA was what I was thinking ;)
Imagine free ANYTHING in India :). I'm joking. During any festival, we get a lot of free stuff at weddings, free buttermilk or lime juice on the streets during Ramanavami etc...
I bought a half dozen donuts and think I had 2 before we even paid for it ;)
I went back with my roomies that evening and bought a dozen donuts.
For the next coupe of weeks, each time we went in the evenings, we could see long lines at the store and on the street as well.
We never went to the drive thru coz you would miss out on the free donut when the HOT DONUT light was on.
I even remember seeing people standing in the rain with umbrellas to get the hot donuts.
A regular visit for me to Krispy Kreme was ensured by my friends at the ASME and that is how I got my name KRISPY :).
I am sure half the guys who called me Krispy had no idea what my name was, but it worked for me.

My first job in the US

My first job interview was in a small narrow corridor with 20 others waiting in line to fill up the 4 openings! It was for a the catering department at UTA. I got the job and was offered some 5$ an hour and was promised up-to 20 hours of work per week.

The job included counting clean spoons, forks, knives, dessert forks, glasses for water; folding napkins; laying plates on tables; filling ice into glasses (which I was banned from doing after I broke 2 glasses in 2 ice drums and had to dump all the ice out of the drums since glass and ice look alike!); serving water; refilling ice tea; making ice tea; serving dessert.

I didn't make a whole lot of money since there weren't a whole lot of parties and the catering services didn't have many jobs. I did learn about some of the good things in life – Italian cream cake/ Cheese cake/ Carrot cake and a lot of fancy decorated plates of food.

My friends would wait for me to come home after work since I could take home as much food as was left over. If there was a party planed for 45 people and only 42 showed up, there would be 3 extra plates. There would be maybe 8 of us who helped serve, so there would be a total of 11 plates made for us. Some of the people would not wait till the end, so there would be more than 1, sometime 4 plates for me and we would all share and eat the good food in the apartment.

My boss was Chris, a hyper active white guy, who was always running around the place. Margaret was a sweet old lady who would offer to get my white dress shirt washed and ironed after a long shift catering a party. There were a couple of big ladies in the fruit section, who would always be singing and making fun of all the folks who happened to enter their section. There was another Chris, who was an angry black dude, who, after a while, I found out was a really sweet guy. He had worked in the catering department for a long time and was frustrated with the newbies like us who would screw up on the job and he would have to fix the mistakes we made! He was an extremely funny guy though and he would imitate people from different countries so well – Chineese/ Indian/ Middle eastern/ Russia and did it so well with an accent as well. UTA was a school that had a lot of people from all over the world, so I guess he got a chance to interact with them all.

I think one of the things I realized working in the catering department was that it was ok to do any kind of work in the US. Most middle class people in India would NOT work at a restaurant waiting tables, but in the US it was totally accepted. It was nice to know that my family was also ok with me working here and I think that they felt that it will help me grow as well. I learnt to interact with people from a different country, learnt a new job and learned to do it well, learnt etiquette and a little bit about food as well.

I really did enjoy the experience of working at Aramark, the catering team at UTA.

MAVS Mini pass - Season 2000-2001

I went to the fan jam with some friends, where the fans of the dallas mavericks are allowed to go into the stadium, meet the players and also get to watch a scrimmage.

BooBoo/ Chacha/ Mary and Derek went with me and we had a great time looking around, talking to some of the players, getting autographs and taking a look at all the seats and prices for the same.

I even got Mark Cuban (owner of the mavericks) to sign a jersey for me. He was leaving the merchandise store and I asked him for an autograph. He was walking fast and said not now man. I said “I'm your only Indian fan”. So he turned around and came and signed my jersey. I said “Thanks for doing such a great job with the Mavs” and he said “Thanks to fans like you” :)

We then watched them scrimmage for a while before we left.

I was thinking of going to some games, so got in touch with one of the sales reps for the mavs and asked him for a bunch of different options and was talking to mom about it on the phone and also to my sis and sis convinced me to get a small mini pass – 10 home games. The mavs play 41 home games each season and so I would have to drive the 40 miles (FortWorth to Dallas) for every 4^th home game. I got to choose which teams I wanted to see and it was totally worth it.

I would drive in right after work, get there an hour before the game, grab something to eat, sit and watch the players practice and then watch the game – most of the time the whole game, but sometimes would leave early. Parking was expensive, but I would get a spot closer to the stadium, so that I could leave and do the 40 mile ride back quicker...

I got to see Reggie Miller, Allen Iverson, Shaq, Kobe, Stockton-Malone and a bunch of other players. The things I remember most are:

• Miller facing away from the basket and watching the shot clock wind down and turning around and shooting a three point shot right as the buzzer went off for the end of practise.
  
• Iverson being so fast on the floor that it looking like everyone else was in slow motion.
  
• Shaq being goofy with Don Nelson (Mavs Coach) as he was the coach of the USA Olympics team before the start of the game.
  
• Stockton being right on the money in his passes/ Malone faking fouls and getting boo'd by the Mavs croud.
  

The Mavs made it to the playoffs after a long 5 year break and I got to select the seats I wanted for the playoffs. A coworker of mine Nik said he wanted tickets too, so I now had company. We played the Jazz in the first round and beat them. We went to the second round for the first time in 11 years and I was dreaming of the Mavs going to the finals (but was scared for it, as the ticket prices would be HIGH and I could not afford it). Thanks to the Spurs, we lost in the second round, but I got to shake hands with Emitt Smith (Dallas cowboys star running back) after a win against the spurs. His body guard tried to push my hand away, but I held it there and Emitt shook my hand :).

I dont think I ever thanked my sis for convincing my to get seasons passes, so here I go... Anu, if it wasn't for you, I might have never gone and seen so many Mavs NBA games. Thanks :)