"Storytime" was a fiction reading night, on which local writers got up, and read what they had written. It met on Monday, in the upstairs space of a local pub, in a pleasantly atmospheric setting. On the first monday of the month, there was an open mike night, during which you have to sign up in advance. If you wanted to go up, you had to be sure to see "she who must be obeyed" at least 15 minutes in advance. (No, she was not a Pagan, as far as I know).

So, what did any of this have to do with us, you ask?

We were going to meet, downstairs, at 7 pm, one hour before Storytime This was to be a general, "let's get to know each other" kind of meeting. "Sounds awkward", you say. Yes, that's always a possibility. So, just like on a first date, we planned to keep the awkwardness under control by insuring that our first meeting would be a brief one, and that we'd have a reason to be there, other than the fact that we were there to meet each other.

If people wanted to hang around after the reading, too, that would be cool, too. Let's continue.