I’m skipping ahead in my story about SXSW as a lot of it was a blur of meetings, walking and beer (thanks, Matt!). The rest of the story about the people I met along the way starts immediately after I checked out of the Hyatt. It was raining and it turns out that the fluctuation of SXSW of attendees was starting to grow: people started to leave the Interactive sessions while movie junkies started to invade for the Film festival.

The first rainy day in Austin during SXSW

As I wandered out of the Hyatt I was greeted by the porter who asked if I wanted a taxi. It was a cool afternoon, gray and dreary as rain continued to gently fall from the Austin skies. After a minute or two there was no less than a dozen other people also waiting for rides. Due to the constant churn of attendees there was a dearth of taxis so grabbing one was a luxury; I was first in line so everyone else could look on in envy as a lone cab pulled up. That’s right bitches! That was my cab and my fat ass would sit in the back seat alone, stretched out and snoozing!

:/

Ok, so maybe not. There were two guys who were together who were also headed to the airport. As the porter opened the door and the cabbie popped the trunk I said ‘Do you guys want to share a cab? It makes sense since we’re going to the same place.’ They were both very appreciative and asked if I was sure. Of course, of course! I’ll probably never see these people again so what harm will random acts of kindness do? It turns out that was Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, publisher and founder of The Daily Kos and one of his colleagues. Knowing this, you would think we would have discussions either about politics or technology. Instead, after he introduced himself, I said ‘you’ve got some pretty whacked out commenters on your site’ and we had a brief discussion about the SXSWi panels, advertising and RSS feeds. I was pretty sure they talk about that stuff all the time. Instead, I drove the conversation in a different direction: we talked about his kids, gadgets and technology and how we all used to have big ass tv sets and with knobs and rabbit ears and VHS decks that remotes that were connected with a cable.

By the end of our ride the sun had started to peek through the clouds. Our cabbie, a large, bald, burly mountain of a man covered in tattoos, had joined in discussion and we were all excitedly reminiscing about how things have changed and how things will change with regards to television technology. All four of us came to the conclusion that future of television is 3D…which will be driven by 3D porn. As our cabbie unloaded our luggage I told the guys not to worry and that I’d pick up the cost of the cab. They asked ‘Really? Are you sure?’. Again, what harm could a random act of kindness do? The four of us exchanged smiles and handshakes and said our farewells until next year.

Austin to Dallas
I had no idea what my flight from Austin to Dallas was going to be like, especially with the way the way I spent my 3 hours hanging out at the airport (boy, did I get there early…but that’s another story). When they finally called my seating group to board I ran into a young woman who got to the entrance at the same time I did. I thought I would be gentlemanly and offered her to go first. That and I was a little smitten – she looked like a young Lauren Graham. We got onto our commuter plane and we made our way to the back of the plane. That’s when I noticed the seating. One side of the plane had rows of three seats while the other had rows of two.

As we slowly made our way to the back she says to me ‘Oh, great. I have to sit in the middle again.’ I asked her which row of seats she was in and she said told me she was in 27. The same row that I was in. So I did what I thought was the nicest thing I could do and I asked if she ever sat next to the window, to which she replied that she never had. You can see where this is going. I gave her my seat.

It turns out that her name was Mindy, she was 25 years old and that she had only flown 3 times on an airplane. Every time she was on a plane she had to sit in the middle seat and the person with the window would always pull down the shade. Oh, and one more thing: she was terrified of taking off. She related to me that the last time she was on a plane she was literally bawling as the plane taxied down the runway to lift off. As our plane started to depart I could see that she was getting really anxious and, at this particular part of the flight, maybe sitting next to the window wasn’t the best idea. She stopped talking to me and started to bite her lower lip, bounce her legs and wring her fingers.

At this point she started to freak me out. I felt like I was in that scene from the Twilight Zone Movie when the monster was on the wing. In order to calm her down started talking to her about how Angela and I flew to Hawaii and how sitting three wide wasn’t so bad compared to sitting in the middle of eight people. The plane pointed it’s nose down the long runway and slowly started picking up speed. Mindy’s eyes started to dart around so I spoke to her a little louder so that she would focus on me. As the plane moved faster and she glanced out the window she suddenly thrust out her hand and grabbed mine. I continued talking to her as if nothing was going on and when the plane was no longer in any contact with the ground she looked at me both drained and relieved, like she had just conquered the urge to scream at the top of her lungs.

Mindy didn’t let go of my hand for about another 5 minutes as we talked about how we were probably unlucky to be sitting just behind the wing of the plane and so close to all that explosive fuel. Eventually, the warmth came back to her clammy fingers and she was relaxed again, enough to let go. We spent the next hour talking about our lives, our families and Andre Agassi with the woman sitting to my left. When we were about to land she grabbed my hand again.

When we landed and disembarked the plane she gave me a very warm and genuine hug as we said good-bye. We were headed to different parts of the airport and we wouldn’t be able while away the time together during our layovers. She smiled and thanked me and with that we went our separate ways.

Ok, I’m long winded and tired of reading my own stuff. I’ll save my last one for tomorrow 🙂