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.