And in 2014, we got to meet Apollo! I remember Cindy surprising me with the news that she was having a baby. We were in Boston for a conference, and on the first day she was oddly insistent that I come down to the hotel lobby and say hi to her before going to breakfast. So I went down, and when I stepped out of the elevator, there she was, visibly pregnant and looking so happy.

I’m way late adding to this, I think I first met Cindy when she came to stay with us for dconstruct. We got chatting about crafts etc and hit it off. We stayed in touch and saw each other when we were traveling for conferences etc. She supported me through a rough break up, and asked all the right questions when I met someone new! We just kinda never stopped chatting and whenever we were nearby we’d meet up and it was like we’d always been hanging out.

There was a Sunday Hello Kitty brunch one day in… 2008 it looks like, and I think Cindy was still working for ScrapBlog at the time? I don’t remember the details but she’d had a shitty day the day before, so I searched for a pet store that had rabbits and after brunch we went out for Bunny Therapy. Let’s see if this video will post on slack…

I don’t recall a specific moment of meeting Cindy, but it was at SXSW2005 and we just found our circles overlapping. Then we kept seeing each other at other conferences, and once she moved to SF we started hanging out more. There’s just this large vortex of friendship around Cindy and people get absorbed into it. Not my picture, but it’s in my faves…

Laughed just now thinking about the moment that I realized that I was part of a trip to get a “jumbo slice” in Adams Morgan with Cindy (at least partly) because there would be no available parking, and she needed someone to run in and get the pizza ;)

I don’t think I ever said this to you, Cindy, but when you and Matt moved to Pittsburgh and in order to feel you closer, every time I had to create a test account at work I would use your first name and then a food-related “last name” like CindyBakes, or CindyWaffles.

I remember how I met Cindy! I haven’t known her as long as most of you. Joshua had worked with her at Flickr and was currently working with Matt at Twitter, and we were living in Berkeley while I was on sabbatical. I had given birth like a month before Cindy did, and I was standing awkwardly in a queue waiting to get in to Twitter for their Halloween party with a stroller full of a 3 month old baby.

My Cindy Li Origin Story: I randomly emailed Cindy after SXSW in 2006 after seeing her name bandied about and realizing she lived somewhere near Washington, DC. Basically like, “Hey wanna come out to this little event I run?” It’s Cindy so of course she did. Refresh DC is still around. 😂 Too many adventures to recall… Hello Kitty Waffles out at her place in NOVA LOST watch parties with her sitting between Jon and I.

The queen who stole my heart. Cindy is the queen of many things, including badass costume maker!

Over 30 years ago, I met the one and only Cindy Li. She was one of my first friends at a new school. And if you guessed we met in an art class…then you are correct. I was truly in awe of her talent. And the ideas that would just come to her…we have all witnessed that. I remember going to one of her birthday parties at her parents restaurant. That was my introduction to her family…and some of the best food!

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.