Post SXSW
South by Southwest Interactive is kinda like summer camp for geeks. Well, if summer camp included lots of drinking, of course. Just like when I used to come back from summer camp and hated my normal life, Ive come back from SXSW and am depressed about real life. Why cant my daily life include hanging out with friends who live all over the country, watching performance art, eating good food, making new friends, lots of flirting, excessive drinking, staying up too late, and sleeping in? Why cant my daily conversations always be about web projects, pranks, travel, relationships, blogs, Google, Internet celebrities, dvorak versus qwerty, and food? Because then my life would be perfect and no one has a perfect life.
I had a great time in Austin for SXSW. This year I didnt attend the actual conference, which made my time in Austin just like vacation. It was so good to have a break from work and school. I drove down Saturday night in anticipation of picking up Cameron from the airport. Unfortunately, he got stuck in Kentucky due to bad weather. So I forged on ahead knowing that I would see Cameron in the morning. Saturday night I met a bunch of people on the outside patio at the Blind Pig. The weather was absolutely incredible as was the company. Blind Pig started getting crowded so we moved to Paradise, but for some reason I never went in. Instead, we walked down the street to a dance club. Waiting in line there made some of us figure out that we didnt want to go in, so we headed back to Matt, Julie, Amanda, and Andrews hotel room. (After swinging by my car to get some g&t.) The rest of the night was slightly blurry which Im sure was in direct relation to the amount of gin I was drinking (and wasnt slight). I remember sitting by the pool for a bit until we were told it was closed. Then heading back to Leonard & Ryans room for a few more hours. It was super fun and I feel bad for anyone else staying at that hotel, because I know we must have been loud.
People I saw on Saturday:
Jefe, Kristin, Kevin, Mark, Leia, Amanda, Matt, Julie, AndrewJThomas, Ryan Gantz, Alison, Ryan N, Erik Benson, M-D, Josh, Jessa, Connie, Ru, Ryan C, Leonard
People I met on Saturday:
MichaelBuffington, Star, Ian
Sunday morning I picked up Cam at the airport and went directly to eat lunch at Shady Grove, one of my favorite places in Austin. We waited forever for an outside table, but it was too beautiful to sit inside. (The high for the day was 80 degrees.) It was fun catching up since we hadnt seen each other since last year at SXSW. Then Cameron went to the conference to hear the keynote and I went to the hotel pool. After a long nap, I met up with Cameron, Michael, and Jude. We started out with a ton of people at Hotel San Jose, which has a gorgeous courtyard. Dinner was down the street at an awesome Tex-Mex place with Michael, Cameron, Jude, Shannon, and Ze. Waiting for dinner I ran into Jane! When we finally sat down at a table, I realized that Ze was the guy with the amazing jumping cat, who I was disappointed to learn is no longer jumping so high. After dinner it was back to Hotel San Jose where I buried myself under the heater(because it got really chilly) and chatted with Jude. We stopped back at the hotel room for a couple drinks then it was on to Paradise where I saw everyone else I wanted to see.
People I saw on Sunday:
Kevin Smokler, Photo Matt, Brad Graham, Min Jung, Dan, James, Jane
People I met on Sunday:
Jude, Shannon, Ze Frank, Sam, Josh, Andrew Huff
Monday morning I sent a few email from bed and relaxed. Then Cameron and I had lunch at Moonshine, quickly becoming my favorite restaurant in Austin. If you go, you MUST try the corndog shrimp. Lunch was followed by coffee at the Hilton, where I ran into Carly and Ezra. Ironically that was the same place I ran into Carly last year when I first learned she was pregnant with Ezra. It was an amazing-the-world-has-come-full-circle kind of moment. Cameron went off to the conference and his panel. I went back to the hotel. While I was contemplating a nap, Mel called back and we met for coffee. It was really cool to just hang out with him for a few hours. Mel dropped me off at the convention center where I met up with a group heading over to Tambeleo for 20x2. I really enjoyed the show and the socializing. Like Cameron said, that's totally my event and the reason I stayed in town on Monday. After 20x2, Cameron and Michael introduced me to The Boiling Pot. Then we hit the Side Bar, which was far too crowded and slightly annoying, so I went back to the hotel. It was time to pack and sleep.
People I saw on Monday:
Shane Bartell, Alex, Michael Brown, Tina
People I met on Monday:
David Galbraith
At 5am Tuesday morning, I woke up and got ready for work. Cameron, poor thing, woke up enough to give me a hug goodbye. Then I drove the three hours back to Dallas and walked into a really, really crappy day at work. But I guess that's always how these things go. After a couple of incredible days, coming back to work always sucks. The weekend was fabulous and I'm already promising myself that I'll go for the entire conference experience next year (when I'm not in grad school anymore!). My only regret is there were a couple people I wanted to see but didn't - Stephan Seagraves, a blogger from Lubbock and Jon Sanchez, a friend of mine that lives in Austin.
Pictures will be up soon.
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