Dude, I love my blog. I can share my life, thoughts, typos and photos with ease in one place. I love my Twitter account. I am mainlining everything there is on the internet about the Olympics. I’m learning things about technology for free. I follow npr and cnn news to feel smarter. I love mental floss.  I love knowing what my friends in San Diego and Austin are up to.

As I prepare for another annual trip to Austin for my favorite week of the year, I am getting a little nervous about SXSW. When I first went with KD and LC, I thought I was getting in a secret club. The emails that went around had a small number of names at the top. You didn’t forward to someone who wasn’t deserving. I had to pass a test (kidding). There were free parties for people who loved music and SXSW but were in the cool kids club that weren’t going to pay for it.

Today, as I look through the 20 people I’m following on Twitter that have tags like ‘freesxswparties’ and ‘sxswforfree’ I’m seeing they have thousands of followers. There aren’t that many parties. Or venues that fit that many people. At least not that I know of. Last year there were parties we couldn’t get into, we’d just sigh and move on. We’d show up earlier and earlier to ensure we got in to see who we wanted. And there weren’t that many Twitter/facebook invites.

This year everything is on facebook. There are a dozen blogs and sites with links to the rsvps we used to have to hunt down. Anyone can see it. Should I be nervous? I am. I haven’t even booked my flight because I’m thinking about going early for the interactive parties I usually miss just to make sure that I can get in and around.