SXSW: The Hangover

The amazing Jen Robbins of Jenville and Cooking With Rockstars, Jason Swihart of Snowhugger and Mobilhomme, Me of GGC. (Photo stolen from Jason's flickr set.)

You know that feeling you have in your gut after a really amazing date? And your roommate is on the couch waiting up for you and she's all, "tell me everything!" And you can't. Because what can you say? Sometimes moments are more powerful then words, even for someone like me who lives betweens words and letters and follows elipsis like stone paths across pages and screens. Sometimes you just have to wink and say "It was nice. It was a good time."


Dana Robinson, BFF of skampy.com and manager of NBC Online, Scott Watson, master Disney Imagineer, Me of denimjacketsareback.com. (Photo stolen from Dana's flickr set.)

SXSW was my perfect date. So I'm not going to even try to recap my adventures. One, because they are slightly fuzzy and two, because, it's impossible. ... Instead I'm going to highlight the awesome awesomes that I mentioned in my last post. New friends and idols who didn't fall.

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Because Smith is in the process of collecting six-word memoirs (go on and submit yours, here), I will sum-up one of my favorite Smith moments with a six-word memoir of my own:

4am pizza run in the rain

I sort of forced the Smith posse to adopt me and we ran around all over Austin sharing drinks and gossiping in dark corners of shadowy bars. (See right ---> Me with Larry Smith of Smith... Posing? I guess?)

If you're not familiar with Smith, get over there asap. Smith is all about the art of storytelling: Everyone has a story. Tell yours here. Smith was founded by super hero, Larry Smith, an experienced writer who has artfully created a mecca for both professional and novice storytellers. Supporting Smith is supporting the craft of the memoir. The truth. The universal "Smithness" of us all. Add Smith to your list of daily reads. Get lost in the archives. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you, Larry for the pizza. And for helping me up when I tripped down the stairwell. And Rachel Fershleiser? You're one of my new favorite people on the planet. Nothing like girl talk in crowded bars. Fist to chest, sister.

Rachel Kramer Bussell:

Speaking of girl talk in crowded bars... Rachel Kramer Bussell, sex writer extraordinaire and Internet buddy turned real-life BFF was one of the people I was most looking forward to meeting. And as presumed, she did not disappoint. Her panel was brilliant. Her cleavage was fierce. She was kind and adorable and balls-out amazing.


The Cool Kids of Interwebs Publishing:

I got to meet up with my Babble boss, Rufus and his beautiful wife, Alisa who were uber-fab. I tried to sound smart in front of Joan Walsh, who was delightful and personable and statuesque. Sean Mills (The Onion) was funny as shit. As was Ricky Van Veen (College Humor.)


I also want to send e-hugs to some other amazingly awesome new Friends, Jason (above), Rob, Jen, Scott and probably more awesomes that I'm totally leaving out (The BBC guys for instance. Super cool dudes. Totally forget their names.)

Miles and Greg of LonelyGirl15:

Spent a rainy-night, fleeing crowds with Miles and Greg. Ended up at a dive bar gossiping until the wee hours of lightningstorm 2007. Loved these guys. It's not every day you get to make friends with pop-culture icons with crazy-brilliant brains. Looking forward to getting together in upcoming days here in the Ellay, even if we have to meet halfway between the east and westside. (Psh... Westsiders.)


Neal Pollack:

I heart Neal Pollack and am grateful that he invited me to be his sidekick-biotch in Alterna-parenting. We even got to catch a movie, which was very funny.

Nothing but love for the Nealster. Even if we got robbed of our Q&A at our very "Alternative" panel. (More photos to come... )

I also am told there's a podcast of our panel somewhere but I'm too lazy/scared to hear myself say "like" a thousand times to dig it up so you can hear it.

And speaking of cool blogging parents, I attended the parent bloggers 2.0 panel and got to meet some of my favorite parentbloggers, hug Danny several times and meet his lovely hot wife.

I also almost met up with Jonathon every night but somehow we managed to keep missing each other. Rats!

And lastly... because I don't even know where to begin:

Romi Lassally:

Several weeks ago Romi contacted me to partner with her on an amazing business/creative endeavor/venture and SXSWi was our first in the flesh meeting/side-by-side networking extravaganza. I'm not going to even attempt to put into words my love for this woman. She's mentor material and I can't believe my luck that I get to be her partner in crime. It isn't often you meet someone and just click but Romi and I were insta-friends and I am delighted to pre-announce announce our endeavor True Mom Confessions which will launch as a website (in the upcoming weeks) followed by a radio show followed by total world domination.

Stay tuned for more information/details in the next few days(ish) as we haul ass to cross t's and dot i's and work out the details with our designers. (Get your confessions ready, ladies. And doncha worry, it's anonymous.)

.................

There is so much going on right now. In my head and my life and my work. Most of which I can't talk about or don't want to. Not yet. Instead I find myself storing moments and feelings and questions in mason jars and placing them carefully under my pillow, in the junk drawer beside my desk, in the back pocket of my jeans.

I'm home now and I seem to be sick with some kind of cold-thingy. Allergic to Los Angeles or maybe I'm just coming down off my buzz. It's hard to taste freedom and live without responsibilities for five days and then come back and be as overwhelmed as I was before. Maybe this is what a midlife-crisis feels like (except I'm nowhere near middle-aged)... If only I could afford a hot blonde with plastic ta-tas and a Ferrari.

Ah...Such is the roller coaster of life, vomit in my hair and all.

GGC