Love Story

Love Story, one day early

The first meeting back after three weeks off. The theme borrowed from the date: 520 is the Chinese internet’s Valentine’s Day, and the meeting fell the day before. Someone clarified for the record that the regular meeting fell on the 19th, not the 20th, and they were just celebrating 520 a day early.

Jason’s speech was titled “5.20.” Jacob spoke on boredom, and Min gave “I, 12.”

The muscle photograph

Whatever happened during Table Topics produced a photograph that ran the group chat until eleven that night. Comments in the chat ranged from disbelief that a speech and a flexed bicep could work so well together, to a flat admission that reciting the speech was never the point, the point was showing off the muscles, to the simple theory that muscles alone could win over an audience.

The rest of the evening’s mood, from two members: one said the night was so much fun her voice had gone hoarse, the other worried they’d been laughing so loudly and for so long that the venue might throw them out.

A guest worth recruiting

A first-time visitor, Daniel, gave an evaluation that people were still laughing about an hour later, with one member writing that just thinking back on it set off another round of laughing. The recruitment pitch started immediately — he had come from Luohu, said the commute was easy, and promised to come back the following Tuesday.

Behind the scenes

The room changed at the last minute, again. And the presenter arrived without her adapter, posting a cheerfully self-deprecating request for anyone with a laptop or iPad that could mirror to the screen, plus an HDMI cable. Someone brought a spare.