Thursday, 14 March 2002 | SXSW

My first conversation went something like this: "What are you here for?" "Oh, my website was nominated as a finalist." "Yeah, mine, too. For what category?"... "What's your URL?"..."What's yours?"..."Where are you from?"..."Have you been to Austin before?"..."Good luck."

And another early conversation about like this: "So what's your URL?" "It's lisawhiteman.com." "Whiteman?" "Yeah, 'white-man,' just like it sounds...I have a cousin named 'Rich' who has the same last name that I do...No, I'm not kidding." (Talking to someone else) "Hey, did you hear that? Her cousin's name is Rich White-man."

The more time that passed, the better the conversations got. By Tuesday, I was where I probably should've started out. The nice thing about this group in particular, though, is that we can keep up with each other without much effort and without needing much foundation, since reading someone's website doesn't require the same intimacy as a letter or a phone call.

I didn't, however, limit myself to out-of-towners and Internet cafes. No, no. On Saturday Rebecca took us to Mount Bonnell, a glorified hill northeast of Austin that overlooks the Colorado River and a row of ridiculously large houses, a cliff that's lined with signs that threaten punishments for throwing trash and fireworks. From there we drove to Lago Vista, where we got to see two long-horned steer (granted, we stayed in the car and hung out the windows with our cameras like Japanese tourists), a few ranches, campers, and deer, not to mention a woman in a Confederate flag jacket, countless cowboy hats, and shops crammed with Texas paraphernalia. In fact, on Monday I bought some $15 cowboy boots in an Austin thrift store, boots that would later cause a problem for the airport security man who unpacked and tried to repack my overstuffed suitcase.

Mostly, though, my schedule varied little: walk to the conference center > go to a panel > eat a disappointing lunch > go to another panel > wander around Austin > walk home > rest > walk back downtown > go to a party or happy hour or listen to storytelling > eat a turkey sandwich (I think I had at least one per day) > go to another party or happy hour or storytelling event > go home and hang out with the hosts. (repeat)