The First Day of the Rest of My Life

Monday, March 17, 2008



"You didn't think I'd spend 10 days in Texas without meeting you guys, did you?"

So began a post that set in motion another memorable weekend in Austin.

At about 3:45 pm on Friday, I left work in west San Antonio, thinking that I had enough time to get to downtown Austin to enjoy at least an hour of my first blog meetup. After surviving a 30 minute excursion from downtown to the SA city limits, I figured I was home free.

Unfortunately, a bad accident in San Marcos brought those thoughts to a screeching halt. It took me about an hour to travel all of three or four miles. All the while, I was texting my friend Stephanie (middle, in photo) about my progress...

"Stuck in San Marcos traffic, and I have to pee. I am NOT a happy camper right now..."

"An immigration van just passed me on the shoulder. Might explain the traffic jam."

"Huzzah! Moving at 25mph!"


Part of me was livid at the circumstances that would come between me and a party, but then I saw the sand and oil on the highway at the point of the accident. (Any cars involved were towed out of sight.) Then I had a reality check. (Okay, first I urinated, THEN I had a reality check.)

I was reminded that there are more important things than drinking at a hipster bar. I said a quick prayer after leaving the location of my pitstop, and gave $5 to a homeless woman on the corner of 35 and Riverside as a quickly hatched act of penance. At 7:10 pm, I made my way to the party. I was there only for a little while, but I did get to meet Ms. Whitney Matheson (right, in photo). She gave me a hug when I told her where I drove in from. Stephanie gave me a gin and tonic. I'll let you be the judge of what was better...

After the party, Stephanie and I headed to 6th for some surprisingly good Asian food, then set off to take in the music festival. We ended up at an industrial club called Elysium for Japan Nite. My thoughts about what I saw:

- Detroit 7 is not from Detroit, and they are not seven people. They do rock the house.

- 2 ukuleles + 1 mandolin + 1 fiddle + 1 upright bass + two Japanese girls with high voices + a sing-along of "Que Sera Sera" = AWESOME!

We left the club, and walked back down 6th to get our late-night pizza fix. A few minutes later, a familiar face got the same fix. A guy by the name of Perez Hilton. Him and a buddy got a slice and went on their merry way. A couple of sorority girls tried to get pictures/autographs/felt up, but he just smiled and went on his merry way. Soon after, so did we.

The next morning, Stephanie and I met up for breakfast in her barrio. She said she had work to catch up with, leaving me to explore the conference on my own. I ended up at a free party put on by the Guitar Hero III people (In case you were wondering, I suck at Guitar Hero III.), followed by a free show at Waterloo Park. I caught some stand-up from Janeane Garofolo (sp?), and I can draw one of two conclusions:

1. I'm not as liberal as I thought I was.
2. She's not as funny as I thought she was.

Soon after, I headed back to SA. And wouldn't you know it? My drive back was the usual 90 minute sprint.

Next year, I may just have to block out the week in order to REALLY get my hands dirty with music, film and "interactive."

Labels: , ,

1 Comments:

  • You saw Janeane and she wasn't that funny?!?! I'm aghast.

    Nice beard btw! ;)

    By Blogger Thatgirl7278, at 10:10 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home