17 Years Ago Today, The Spurs Signed Manu Ginobili. What Were You Doing?

I was 14. Hard to say exactly what I was doing on July 18, 2002. But, I was probably doing 1 of 3, or all:

1. AIM: If there is one thing I know I did July 18, 2002, it was AIM. I loved AIM. The cryptic away messages. The aiming until late in the hour. You could go into the weekend single and by Monday morning you had a serious girlfriend. My AIM handle from 2001-2003 was KingA12344. I was essentially LeBron before LeBron (@KingJames). My account eventually got suspended/deleted by my parents because in my ‘about me’ profile I put “sex is like pringles, once you pop, you can’t stop”. I was a virgin when I wrote that, but still a solid line. No regrets.
2. Drinking my first beer (Smirnoff): Would love to sit here and say me and my boys crept downstairs, snuck into the fridge and crushed my dad’s Budweisers. But it was Smirnoff Ice. And we requested them from the dudes a year older who had a fake ID. 17 years later, that move did not age well. I do like to think 14 year old me today would have asked for some White Claws.
3. Watching Friends: Not much to elaborate here. I fucking loved Friends. Still do.