SXSW Film - Friday March 7

Friday March 7 marks the beginning of the nine-day 2008 SXSW Film Festival here in Austin, TX and, incidentally, the beginning of a forced weeklong shutdown at my employer, Applied Materials. My girlfriend Carmen is also on Spring Break this week from her full-time studies at the Universtity of Texas College of Pharmacy. We decided to spend the week watching the SXSW films, hanging out downtown, and basically being tourists in our own town. A SXSW film pass this year cost $70 and are available at Waterloo Video at 6th and Lamar.

Friday night I was planning to see the opening night film called 21 directed by Robert Luketic and starring Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and Laurence Fishburne. The movie was scheduled to start at 9:30pm at the Paramount Theatre, but Carmen was scheduled to work until 9pm. I planned to get to the Paramount early to stand in line, and she could just meet me when she got there. On my way downtown, I stopped by the CVS to give Carmen her film pass and a change of clothes and shoes because it was a very chilly night and I am a sweet and thoughtful friend. She was very appreciative. She was working with a pharmacist named Barbara who I thought was pretty cool.

I headed downtown and parked at the State Parking Garage at 13th & San Jacinto. It was a few blocks from the Paramount at 8th & Congress, but I was well-bundled so the walk was good. I walked up to the Paramount Theatre from the Capitol, and I could see a line of badge-holders practically all the way down 8th street. The line for pass-holders (like myself) stretched all the way down the other side of the block down 7th street. I waited in line with a very nice lady named Andrea. We chatted about movies until the line moved to let us into the theater which was about 9:00pm. I was getting kind of nervous because Carmen had not arrived yet, but she was scheduled to work until 9:00pm. I was already seated when she called at about 9:15 saying she was at Braker and I-35. Now I was really nervous.
Matt Dentler welcomed us to the SXSW film festival and introduced the director Robert Luketic who introduced the film. Still no Carmen. During the opening credits of the movie, I got another call from Carmen telling me they would not let her into the theater. :( I was so sad! But, at the same time, I was not giving up my seemingly comfortable seat to leave the movie that I waited in line for over an hour (in the cold!) to see. I couldn't really talk on the phone because the movie had already started, but I wanted to send her a text message to tell her that I was staying. After about 5 minutes of fiddling around with my phone, I realized for the first time that I do not know how to send a text message; I only know how to reply to one. My heart was sinking as I kept thinking to myself, "why can't I figure this out?" I racked my brain to recall an occasion where I had sent a text message from scratch, and I could not think of one. Because I never had. Because I never needed to. Until now. Luckily, Carmen sent me a text to tell me she was leaving, and I could then hit "Reply" and tell her simply "I m stay." That sounds dumb. I took three more minutes to add three more letters so the message now reads "I m staying." That's close enough to English for her to get the message. She texted back to apologize for not getting there early enough, but I was done with texting, and I put my phone away. I smiled at the lady that was one seat away from me, and I think she understood from my half-hearted smile and my struggles with the phone that the empty seat between us was no longer being saved.