SXSW 2014 mini recap

I got so wrapped up in all the new baby stuff (*yawn*) that I forgot to humble brag about these two SXSW run-ins:
Grumpy Cat roused from her nap to give me an epic side eye at the Mashable House. Speaking of the Mashable House, that is also where I swung from a wrecking ball at 38 weeks pregnant. I could not resist! Can I just say that I'm just really glad I didn't wreck the wrecking ball?

But even more exciting than swinging from a wrecking ball and getting glared at by Grumpy Cat? MINDY KALING, y'all!
I don't usually collect autographs, but I have been a fan of Mindy Kaling's since I read her play Matt & Ben in 2004 (theatre nerd alert!). Of course I loved her on The Office (both as a writer and as Kelly Kapoor), and The Mindy Project is my favorite comedy on tv right now. We even pitched Mindy to speak at TxSC last year, but alas, she wasn't available.

Needless to say, when SXSW announced that Mindy Kaling and two of her co-stars from The Mindy Project would be doing a talk, I was thrilled! I didn't take a lot of notes since I was too busy laughing, but here's what I did get (click here to see the full size version):
You can see a better summary of the talk (by a real journalist) here, which includes the now infamous diversity burn. If that sounds bor-ing, here's a great website where you can track down what Dr. Lahiri is wearing on the show (FUN!) because she's hands down the best dressed woman on television (yeah, I said it, New Girl Jess).

While sitting in the SXSW talk, the kind soul next to me asked if I had noticed that a Mindy meet and greet had popped up on the schedule the night before. Noooooooo! I quickly rearranged my schedule and stood in the longer than Disney World line to meet her. I swear, there were at least 300 people in line and I had to be 200th back. They were just getting ready to cut the line literally two people in front of me, when I opened my eyes real big and wide and pathetic-like and clutched my giant stomach and silently pleaded with the SXSW security guy. He took pity on me and cut the line a person after me. Ain't no shame in using the combination of pregnancy and pathetic-ness to get what you want once in a while, right? (Also, I owe Baby Lucy a big prenatal thank you!).

Thus my face... I smiled so hard my eyes and mouth got stuck like this for a week (and here's a blurry photo, too!):

Mindy: Are you thinking about naming your baby Mindy?
Me: [boldface lie] Uh, yeah!
Mindy: Oh, don't. There are so many much more beautiful names out there.

Surreal!