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 :)