monkeyplus1

I log into gmail today and see they have a link for “share your gmail stories”. Here is mine, though short:

anybody can get a gmail account today, but when it first kicked off, it was a super exclusive, invite-only affair. A gmail account was a much-coveted thing.

I had really fucked up some muscles in my back BMXing (at night, in the rain, misjuding a curb I was bunny-hopping). Crippling pain, wracking pain, smasmodic  pain.  Ok, you get the point.

It hurt so bad down one whole side of my body I did the last-resort thing of going to a medical doctor.

He didn’t seem to know what could be causing the pain, and after I made a suggestion or two, he said, “why don’t you let ME make the diagnosis?”.  He didn’t diagnose anything, and typically, sent me home with a scrip for muscle-relaxant and pain-killers.

I don’t do well with pain medication, they typically make me too nauseous, but I did pick up the muscle-relaxer.

Struggling to bus downtown to work, it was hurting just to breathe and sit upright, so I took one. I felt completely worthless that day, my mind was just a fog.  My back felt better, but I didn’t get a lick of work done.

I didn’t like the disembodied, floaty feeling they gave me, and as soon as the back pain was manageable, I stopped taking the meds.

Meanwhile, my friend Nick had somehow gotten his grubby paws on a gmail beta account, and had three precious invitations.  One, he traded for a year of free web-hosting, another he’d promised to his girlfriend (another kind of trade altogether, I suppose).

He taunted me for DAYS while considering offers and outright begging from some of his friends.

I figured I’d get one when I got one, but I’m sure I was somewhat interested.

It turns out, I had something that interested him, and he proposed the trade - the rest of my bottle of meds for a gmail account.

An hour later, he looked like he’d been poured into his chair, sly grin under heavy lidded eyes.  “whaassssup” in slow motion.