The Last Time I Opened iChat

By Max Zats

Everyday, I wake up and my left eye starts twitching uncontrollably. My right arm pantomimes holding a mouse. I have also developed a nervous glance when I am at my computer. Let me tell you my story.

One day, I opened up iChat. My friend told me that his friend had just got an account. Awesome! I was always eager to add new people to my buddy list. I also liked talking to people over IM. He told me the account name and I added him. I opened up a new chat, and said hello. It was all downhill from there.

We immediately started chatting. After a bit, we both were tired of typing, so we resolved to video chatting. He sent me a video chat invite, which I accepted. We talked for a bit, then I had to go. In a few hours, I came back only to discover that he was still online. I got another video chat invite, which I declined since I was busy. As soon as I hit "Decline", there was an off-spring effect where three more invites came. I tried to decline all of them, as they were now cluttering my desktop, not allowing me to work on my project. How long will this fight last? I couldn't log off, I would be cut off from talking to my other friend about important stuff. I couldn't block him, that would be just mean. I couldn't go invisible, because then everyone would be questioning me. My eye twitched as another invite appeared on the left of my screen....then another....and another. It was like being scared by the same part in the same movie. A migraine had crept into my brain. I laid my head down and closed my eyes.

I will never open iChat again. Ever.