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I spent approximately 6 weeks living in Dallas from early July thru mid August. One of my college roomates and best friends, Travis, had a law school clerkship there and was in search of a roommate. The fact that I like Texas and wanted to live in a big city made my decision to go an easy one. Below are some observations and memories:

• Buick: My poor ole Buick was broken into twice in the span of about 3 1/2 weeks. Both break-ins happened around our apartment complex, Camden Farmers Market. This apartment complex seriously lacked security. There were constantly homeless people around the buildings and, while the buildings were nice, the area immediately south of downtown where the complex is located isn’t the best. About $350 worth of cumulative damage was done in order to steal a $30 CD player. Pure genius…
• Español: My Spanish came in helpful on a number of occasions. From the junkyards in Grand Prarie to the workers at our apartment complex, there are a lot of Hispanics in Dallas. Speaking Spanish was a huge plus on a number of occasions.
• Futbol: I will miss playing soccer with the Nigerians. A Nigerian player I met in Knoxville who later moved to Dallas named Godswill contacted me when I got to Dallas about a team he was playing for. After a couple of rough Saturday mornings where I didn’t see much playing time, I gave it up. The team was very serious and didn’t have much time to let anyone outside of the starters play. Nonetheless, it was cool to be the only white guy on the field; the Nigerians treated me well, they just didn’t let me play
• Basketball: Wow, I probably played more basketball in Dallas than I have in 2 years in TN. Our apartment complex had a court in the workout area and every Tuesday, Thursday, & Sunday a bunch of guys would show up to play 4 on 4. I got into the rotation enough that, by the end, most of the other guys knew me and I didn’t have to wait very long to get on the court. In basketball as in life, it is all about who you know. Travis & I also played just about every day after he got back from work. As I said, I played A LOT.
• Bike: Our apartment was so close to downtown and Uptown (the young professionals/"high dolla" area just north of downtown) that I had the opportunityt to ride around quite a bit and get to know the city. Dallas has some amazing architecture such as Fountain Place. I was glad I had my bike because I got to appreciate some of this architecture while riding around. Plus, it made me feel like I was 15 again…out darting between cars, running red lights, taking short-cuts, etc. Fun stuff.
• Yoga: The Uptown area of Dallas is where the young professionals congregate. Lucky for me, there were about 5 yoga studios within a 10-block area and just about all of those studios offered 5 days for $5 or 10 days for $10. Let’s just say, I was a new student at a lot of places….
• Travis: Still one of my best friends (since 98!) - from law school clerkships to “The Never Ending (Girlfriend) Story” coupled with a little bit of Jason Witten’s “Cousin” and a whole lot of “HAMBONE!!!” - it was fun
• Nightlife: Tribeca, Hotel Zaza, The W, Ghost Bar, Idle Rich Pub, Greenville Ave., Corner Bar’s Karaoke scene, a buncha other places on McKinney (I must have walked & biked this street 100 times)
• Ladies: Lots of beautiful ones running around Dallas. A brief name summary of some of the girls I met: Gina (aka Yogi Julia (aka Boobies - a play on her last name Julia², Tia (aka Kazakhstan Fan! Naile (aka The Ghost Krafft (aka Cheerleader Miranda (aka Flaky)…actually, now that I think about it, most of the girls in Dallas were flaky…it probably didn’t help when I started on the “I’m from TN & I went to the first UT (Univ. of TN not the Univ. of Texas) bit…
• $30,000 Millionaires: This term sums up a few of the people I met in Dallas…
• Work: I got a lot done. Now the question becomes how much of it is actually going to show a profit?
• JFK: The 5th Floor museum (where Oswald shot Kennedy from) is in downtown Dallas. Very cool Julia²!
• Coming Back: As I mentioned earlier in this post, my Buick was broken into twice w/my radio being taken during the 1st go-around. As such, I had no audio stimulation for the 14 hour drive back. Luckily, it was a Sunday when I left so I tried to put Verizon and their Free Nights & Weekends offer to the test. I called everyone I could think of during this drive back. I must have used 500 minutes (at least!). It was actually really cool as I had a chance to think, to reflect, and to talk with a lot of good friends. Sometimes blessings come in strange packages.

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