I’m theoretically awake now.? Today the hotel laundry had soap, so I’m trying to get a quick load in before my day actually gets going.? And while I wait for my clothes to wash/dry, I figured I might as well do a little writing.
Last night I got to the Ginger Man for Break Bread with Brad a little early, only I couldn’t figure out where the bread-breaking was going on.? So I sat at the bar for 20 minutes, nursing a cider and devouring spinach-artichoke dip & chips.? (mmm…it’s what’s for dinner!) Until I finally saw some younger guys with SXSW badges, also looking confused, and decided I might as well meet up with other confused people, instead of sitting by myself feeling gawky.
And yeah, the whole thing was out in the back, in a kind of yard/patio; Brad wearing his Bradlands sweatshirt, scads of people with badges.? I noticed Ralph across the crowd, and honestly: it was a relief to see a familiar face.
But as I said last night, I also made the effort to be generally sociable, go up and introduce myself to people, get into lots of new conversations.? Met: web writer from Tufts, guy who ran the company that made the flying toaster screensaver (?), a cluster of people who’ve done this a few times before, JJG, IT guy from a liberal arts college around here (wearing a utilikilt!), a woman who works for the Singapore dept. of health, and a couple of brits who work for the company that’s putting on @media.
As I said last night, I also won a book: The Kid, by Dan Savage, which I’ve sort of wanted to read for a while, plus as someone noted, it’s a local connection for me. 🙂
About the time I met the Brits was when I burnt out, and luckily one of them (Amanda) felt the same, so we shared that cab ride out to our respective hotels.
Today I’ll be playing hooky, hanging out with H, until the 3:30 sessions, when I’ll be in “Bluff your way in DOM scripting” and then probably the planning for play session. And of course tonight is the higher ed webbies dinner.
What’d’ya know?? Sitting up and writing and eating a banana seems to have woken me up most of the way.? (I love that the design on the swag bag is a banana as batteries.)? And taken up just enough time for my wash cycle to (probably) be just about done.