It’s good to be home. I guess. During the last few hours in Austin I began dreading coming back. We walked out of the hotel this morning into a sunny, beautiful, fresh-smelling day. I love New York City, but when I thought about 
returning to it all I could envision in my mind were drab buildings on gray skies, army men with machine guns in the subway, the smell of urine in the streets, the weight of my wool winter jacket on my back, the scratchiness of my scarf against my face, and cold gusts of sub-zero winds ripping through my hair. Maybe I just have spring fever. Maybe it’s the fear of what NYC will be like once we officially declare war on Iraq. Maybe I don’t want to go back to work. Or maybe I just need to go somewhere and lie on a beach for a week. I don’t know. It wasn’t so bad once I actually got back. If you forget about that garbage I stepped in when I got out of the cab on my block.
Austin is nice. Small. Less than half the size I’d expected. The weather was great. Sunny. I’d missed the sun. A lot. If anyone can tell me why Austin proclaims itself to be the live music capitol of the world, I’d be very interested to know. Being in the southwest for the first time since moving to New York made me realize how much I miss southern California sometimes.
SXSW was great. I lot to soak up in just a few days. I’m really glad I got to go. I’m excited to dig into my notes, do more research, utilize tips I learned, etc. 
It was interesting to see and meet so many people who’s work you admire and/or who you feel like you know already just because you’ve read their websites for years.
Celebrity sitings (real celebs, not the people that the geek world have elevated to celebrity status): Robert Duvall in Austin and in the Houston airport, wizzing past me on a cart, the guy who plays mini-me in the Austin Powers movies.
Walt was updating his site regularly this weekend. You can read more about SXSW and our adventures here:
�Two Days to Texas
�iCal and Timezones
�Southwest to SXSW
�Why the Web Matters
�The 2002 Award Winners
�Listening to Lessig
�Name Dropping
�The End of SXSW
He’s also posted our photos of the trip:
�SXSW
�Walking Austin Texas
�SXSW, Austin, TX
Finally, thanks to Nick and Walt. You guys are always fun and inspiring to be around. I had a great weekend and miss you already.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Dave // Mar 11, 2003 at 9:09 am
Vern Troyer…his name is Vern Troyer
2 Walt // Mar 11, 2003 at 10:47 am
You saw Mini-Me in the airport after we’d boarded our plane?! Damn! =-)
3 rachelle // Mar 11, 2003 at 10:51 am
walt, i saw him in the houston airport, not austin. i had a connecting flight to newark in houston.
4 Walt // Mar 11, 2003 at 4:49 pm
Ah. That’s okay. I guess. =-)
5 Mark // Mar 12, 2003 at 3:29 pm
Was he a carrying around a 17″ powerbook?
6 nick // Mar 12, 2003 at 7:14 pm
i was waiting for the apple reference, mark.
7 rachelleb.com // Nov 19, 2004 at 7:07 am
A Night With JJG
DePaul University, The Loop, Chicago Last night I met up with Kris for dinner at Miller’s Pub and a presentation on Brand-Driven Information Architecture that Jesse James Garrett made at DePaul. Thanks to Walt and SXSW (2004/2003), I can…