Join Avril for tea time


Saturday, Dec 22

2 – 4pm

Forge - 626 Somerville Avenue, Somerville

Dec 22

2 – 4pm
Forge - 626 Somerville Avenue, Somerville

5 seats left!

What is Tea Time, exactly?





Meet your Host, Avril.


People tend to get caught in little social bubbles of other people who are pretty similar in background or personality or interests. In many ways this is a good thing, but it's nice to be able to get out and meet people from other bubbles and see what they have to say. It's fun when connections happen. I love the feeling of realizing that a perspective you didn't even know you had has been changed by some new information.

Talking to strangers can be hard, but talking to strangers when they've signed up to come talk is easy!

What's your story?

I feel like I'm an unfathomably lucky person. I mean this even above and beyond the magical fact that I live in a building that can be warm and dry and light even when outside is cold and wet and dark, and that I can just turn a knob to get an essentially unlimited amount of potable water at whatever temperature I want.

Here's a story. One time I was planning to make a cabinet door for a shelf in my kitchen, but I didn't find the right kind of hinges at Home Depot. A few days later I was walking to work and saw a cabinet on the sidewalk to be thrown away, so I crossed the street and looked at it, and its hinges looked like the kind I wanted. I didn't have time to get them right then (I usually left my house with just barely enough time to get to work on time), but on the way home the cabinet was still there. I unscrewed the hinges and brought them home, and they turned out to be basically the perfect size and shape that I was looking for. This is just how my life goes.

I'm exploring life, trying to learn things and be useful and have meaningful experiences. I like science and using data to answer questions. I'm interested in figuring out how the world works, especially people, and helping it work better. I also really like making food for people.

What might we talk about?

How to save the world (or take over the world, or destroy the world). The past, the present, the future, the counterfactual. Things that don't exist but should. Things that do exist but shouldn't. Phrases you never realized were weird until you tried to translate them into a different language. That thing you keep meaning to do but haven't. Urban versus rural. The pros and cons of pants. Color perception. Nature versus nurture. Universal basic income. Time zones. Anything really!
