Something In The Water

I attended SXSWi last week. It was fun, and tiring, and scary. There is something funky in the water in Austin during SXSW, and it was obvious several people were drinking it.

First, I go pick up my badge. I did not go and stand in line the night before, and since I'm not really a morning person, I picked up my badge late morning on Friday. No lines, little waiting. That is how I do things.

Anyway, I walk in to get my badge and I hear:

"HEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY"

I stop. I look around. WTF?

"MAAAAAAARUUUUUSSSKAAAAAAA!"

Coming at me is a girl I've not seen in about a year, and the last time I saw her she was ignoring me as if I had cooties. She and I used to be friends before Meg (see post New Years Eve 2009 for more info) decided to hate me and turned all our mutual friends into her minions.

So to say I was shocked was an understatement. But here was Sofie nearly running at me, arms open, ready to give me a hug.

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I just stood there. She hugged me. I mumbled something like "Hi" as she chatted about how great it was to see me, and how cool it was that I had a badge, and how she needed to get back to her volunteer booth.

She ran off and I headed to pick up my badge, shaking my head as if I just stepped into the Twilight Zone. Wtf? 

So I go on, and figure this is a one time thing, or that maybe Sofie had warmed up to me. A couple weeks ago, I saw she'd become friends with this girl I know through other channels on Facebook, and maybe that friendship had changed her mind about me.. or maybe she wasn't friends with Meg?  

I didn't know. I didn't really care. It was just surreal.

So the next day, I'm out SXSW party hopping and run into another friend of mine. We chat, but I have to run to the toilet, when I come back she's standing there talking with Meg.  My friend sees me and waves me over. Meg sees me, but doesn't do her normal "running off" and doesn't even give me that "rot in hell" look. 

I walk up to them fully waiting for Meg to pull one of her "die bitch die" moves, but she doesn't.  She actually says "Hi" to me and its not forced.

WTF is in the water? 

My friend walks away leaving us together. I fully expect to be ignored, so I don't say anything and start to look around for an excuse to leave.  

Meg says, "So how have you been?"

I'm relatively sure I looked at her like she'd grown three heads. But I answered,

"I've been good, and yourself?"

She replied that she was fine or something then politely said she had to get back to some friends in the corner.

I really don't know what happened. I don't really care. Its just weird.