release

The triumphant reunion tour of Austin has now concluded, and I have a few final words to say.

It’s all about the people. The panels are great —or more to the point, it’s great that there are panels, some of which are great themselves —but the real reason these two lawyers went to Austin the first time in 2001 was to meet some folks. And we did.

Now we’ve got more friends than we know what to do with. (Well, we always find something to do.) And that’s what keeps us coming back when we can.

Long Time Coming

This year, I met two three people I’ve admired from afar. The first was John Gruber. I was talking to MJ in the hall, when John walked up. He shook hands, and I played the fanboy. I was all like “I totally have your site in my favorites folder.” He played modest, and was like “Yeah, man, that’s cool.” And I was like, “No really, Apple r00lz!” And he was totally cool with that, and headed off to his next panel.

I figured he was just being polite. But the next day, I was elbows-deep in feces at the foot of the convention center escalator —changing Nate’s diaper —and John leaned over the rail, gave a big friendly smile, and said hi, when he totally could have pretended not to see me and had every diaper-related excuse to do it. So Gruber’s the real deal to the same degree as he is smart, even to gushy fanboys who act like ninth-graders.

The second impromptu meet-up was Maura. She was talking to fellow Wildcat and conference attendee Heath Row, who I know from back in the day, and I injected myself in the conversation. (To my surprise, the other gentleman in the conversation, Kyle, was also an NU grad. Northwestern’s got a posse, y’all.) Maura, who is smart and funny online, turns out to be smart and funny in person. Charming, too, as she proved by laughing at my jokes. Typography jokes. I pin the needle on the geek meter, y’all.

I also met, albeit briefly, Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. She doesn’t just rock, she hacks! And she’s waaaaay cute in person. (I know. I’m taken, too.)

But the meetups didn’t end there.

Long Time Gone

Standing in the Lego Pit with my kids, I saw a guy there with his kids. He looked familiar. Then I saw his name tag. Turned out we went to high school together back in Tampa. He now lives in Austin and edits the in-house magazine for the conference.

The Lego Pit brought one more surprise my way. Just we saddled up for dinner on Monday, I saw a woman come down the stairs. I saw here face and realized, “I went to school with her!” Then, “I went to Northwestern with her!” (Posse, y’all.) Then her name popped into my head. I shouted, “Natalie!” She turned around, prepared to ward off a stalker or other freak, but recognized me enough not to flee. I used to date one of her sorority sisters, and hadn’t seen her since I graduated in 1992. She wasn’t attending the conference but was there with her husband —another NU grad —who was.

Long Time, No See

I hadn’t been to SXSW for the last two years and was really looking forward to it this year. If there’s any regret I have, it’s not missing every single keynote, even the cool one. It’s that I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with most of the people I came to see. Fortunately, I did get to spend it with a handful of people I like quite a bit — and won’t list here for fear of accidentally omitting someone —so that the main goal was accomplished.

I’ve already figured out what my panel will be for next year. See you there?

NOTE: See those em-dashes? I got inspired. Use — to do it. — also supposedly works and is easier to recall.