Jody: I could seriously go on and on...

Oh my goodness, how are all our stories of how we met Cindy so alike? Similarly I don’t remember the exact moment I met Cindy. It is like she just appeared and instantly she was part of my life.

We were both working at AOL, and the various design teams were being combined. Cindy had come up from Atlanta, part of an acquisition and building of a new product “AOL TV” which sadly was shut down because it was way ahead of it’s time. I mean, really, who would connect their tv to the internet?! (this was 2000 / 2001 maybe?) Cindy was a connector on our design team - pulling folks together - the glue of the team in many ways. 📺

So many stories…

the time we pranked Brian Vargish’s desk when he went on his honeymoon - I think we both wrapped everything in saran wrap and blew up (with our own lungs) balloons that filled his cube. 🎈

the creepy guy that we commiserated about how creepy he was for sharing his artsy photography (i.e. nude) with only the female designers. I still to this day wonder why I didn’t have more courage to tell him “hey that’s not appropriate at work!” I remember we’d try and save each other whenever he came to our cubes “oh, hey, yeah there’s this meeting I need you at - just got scheduled….”

All the Halloween costumes! 🎃 We were Electrawoman & Dynagirl, Gogo & the Bride (Kill Bill) and Team America: World Police. That last one I wasn’t actually a part of. I’d forgotten that I had to travel the day of our Halloween party/contest and realized it maybe a day or two before. I was mortified to tell Cindy because she worked so hard on the costumes. I think we all know Cindy takes her costume making seriously. She’d purchased puffy jackets & pants and was hand-painting them silver and in a camo pattern. Because how else would you get the costume exactly right?

Creme brulee in the office, because of course. And of course Cindy had a culinary blowtorch to finish it off properly!

All our lunches together! I remember when the DC sniper was happening. We wanted to go out to lunch but were scared to go over the mall in case that was a location the sniper picked. We’d read that you should run in a zig zag pattern just in case so we parked and ran like fools in a zig zag pattern into the mall.

Morning workout/bootcamp crew with her and Nicole! 🏋️‍

Dinners - hot pot or crabs at Cindy’s townhouse in Reston! 🦀

Being in awe of her speaking at FOWD in NYC. 🎤

Being so thankful she is my friend when I royally screwed up on a trip to SF for work. I was at a startup and our ceo wanted us to fly in the day of our meeting - literally landing about 2 hours before the meeting with a potential high value client. I thought he was out of his mind and told him I was flying the day before to make sure there weren’t any delays. I didn’t check my bag but they made me at the gate and when they asked me where I was going I said SF. But I was actually flying into Oakland (had a layover). I flew to Oakland and of course my bag wasn’t there. Had to uber to SFO, get my bag then uber back up to SF to Cindy & Matt’s. I wound up not getting there until really late - maybe 2am? Cindy was pregnant with Apollo. I felt horrible coming in so late. In true Cindy fashion she waited up for me and made sure I was comfortable, then took time out of her workday to have coffee with me the next morning. ✈️ ☕️

Talking about motherhood & challenges and all the things we wanted to do both professionally and with kid(s) and the struggle between those. 👶

I could seriously go on and on and on here…