Dallas

I got back from Dallas last night. I left for Dallas on Friday around 12ish. I had made an online reservation with the car rental company. Their website is pretty tricky. While checking out rates, I keyed in a 12pm time. When I made the reservation, I put in 8:30am. Somehow, the 12pm time stuck, far from my awareness. So, I take a printout of it, go home happily, strain and get up at 7:30am (which is like very very early for me), get ready, get in the mood to leave, pack bags and all. And I call them at 8:15 to come get me, and she says that I have 12pm on my reservation. Dang.

Anyways, thanks to the occasional good nature of the car rental people, I got the car at around 9:45am. So, I got to leave at 12pm finally. A 600-mile journey, with no company, in a car that I really dislike, on a day very much less than perfect, lay ahead of me. I relaxed, stepped on the gas and cleared my mind of all of these thoughts. Just be in the moment, I told myself.. And I was "in the moment" all the way to Dallas!

The traffic-gods were on my side; there wasnt any serious traffic anywhere, no block-ups, no detours. I sped happily to Dallas, making good time, crossing the borders of Mississippi into Louisiana, then Louisiana into Texas. On this trip, I had a strange affliction for talk-radio. I thought I'd listen to some political gup-shup, talk on the girl in Florida who discovered that ice was dirtier than toilet water, some discussions on global warming, the advantages of hybrid cars over very good-engined gas cars and vice-versa, rather than senseless music belching out of the speakers. And I should tell you, talk-radio is a very good past-time. It keeps you involved into it, so you chomp away at the miles without realizing it. And when theres a commercial, the 2.5 minute break (as one talk-show host exactly measured) gives you time to assess the discussion and change the channel, or think about some nice warm food at home while you wait for the next installment of talks at 75mph.

It was colder in Dallas than it was here. My car wind shield froze over-night; we had to thaw it out with some warm water since we didnt have enough time to sit and let the car heat up. Saturday morning was spent on helping my friend get some errands that needed attention. Well, let me rephrase, Saturday morning was spent on some well-needed sleep, and Saturday afternoon was spent on the errands. Dallas downtown saw us whizzing through it for a while as I gave my friend an in-car tour of it. I strained to remember which freeway went where, as I had never driven through Dallas downtown myself, and all I could rely on was my memory of Abhijit giving an awe-struck me a tour of Dallas the first time that I had been there. Saturday evening was well spent chit-chatting with Abhijit and Deepa, catching up on stuff, and general irrelevant discussions!

Sunday was another day altogether. As my friend and I waited at a Waffle House, his cell-phone rang.. It was from the car dealership that he intended to buy a car from. The next 7 hours were spent in two cubicles, nodding in disagreement with whatever the dealer, his subordinate, his boss, and a very weird (but overtly smart) finance person were throwing at us. Finally, they got irritated at around 7:15pm (15 mins after their closing time) to such an extent that they put forward a price, and made sort of a take-it-or-leave-it thing. Well, we were ready to leave after about 2 hours of unfavorable prices, but they wouldnt let us go, so I dont accept that their irritation was our concern. Anyways, we did agree to their final price, made them knock down a few dollars off the extra things that they make you buy, and flatly refused this one option that they made such a big deal of. So, at the end of the day, my friend had a car that he wanted, at just a notch over what he was ready to pay for it from the beginning. There, Sunday was accomplished!

Monday morning was spent on more chit chat with Abhi and Dee, while laughing over Ace Ventura's antics, and some very good veggie-patties from Costco, all washed down with a good dose of caffeine. After happily accepting a bag of chocolate covered cookies from Dee (which were really good, and were a focal point later when a truck had over-turned, and I was stuck behind a long line of furious impatient Texans, contemplating either crossing the median and going back, or using it to swing ahead of other furious impatient Texans) finally, it was time to say good-bye to Dallas for a while, and begin the long ardous journey, in my favorite car, back home. I took a breath, relaxed, pressed my foot against the gas pedal, and cleared my mind...