It was December 6, 2011. A Tuesday. According to the Internet, that day it reached a high of 3.7 degrees Celsius in Toronto and a low of -2 in Beijing. May had written me an email earlier in the week that closed with, “my moral compass wavers,” and now sent me a Gchat message that opened, “I AM WAITING FOR YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK.”

Our chat lasted for 44 minutes. We discussed, in no particular order: becoming trades women, maturing into monogamy, the future of the Indian race, and buying art vs doings arts & crafts. And then we typed out the words and actions to ‘Nsync. Somewhere in between our bitching and moaning and groaning and consoling and manic laughter, we came up with the idea for gchatfortunecookie.  Here is our chat, redacted somewhat, although still exposing incredible truths.

May: do you remember us talking about being content vs. happy (or some variation thereof) at manpuku (or some variations thereof)? this is years back.

Miranda: i do. at the noodle place below the grange?

May: yes! okay so i have something revelatory to share

Miranda: ok i have to run to class soon.

May: okay! quick version. basically some people either like something or they don’t. if it’s a maybe, then it’s a no. whereas so much of my life is about not knowing. sooooo the point being, their life isn’t cluttered the way mine is. and it’s not about being happy vs. content. it’s just a state of mind. you could have accomplished nothing and still be happy. you could have ticked off everything on your monster to do list and still feel hollow. i now realized i have complicated my life far beyond the point of reason. this will not make me happy.

Miranda: i really gotta run but if given the choice between a simple lifestyle and yours, i’d choose yours hands down. life’s no fun when it’s defined entirely in black and white terms. the grey is where all the good stuff is. and certainty is overrated. i rest my case.

May: sigh. okay let me mull that over. you go off to learn chinese

Miranda: you mean: 学习汉语 tada!

May: that looks menacing.  i hope you weren’t swearing at me

Miranda: racist

May: ………

Miranda: lolz

May: lolz back

Miranda: ok, i’ll go learn about squiggly lines, you go learn about life xoxox

May: xoxoxoxoxox

Miranda: good luck to both of us

May: report back with highlights. same thing right? squiggly lines. life….

Miranda: wow, that’s like a fortune cookie right there. we could make a multibillion dollar biznass out of our gchats

May: hahahahaa

Miranda: gchatfortunecookies(.tumblr.com)

May: !!!!

Miranda: DOMAIN NAME IS AVAILABLE

May: PLEASE GRAB WE WOULD BE SO GOOD AT THIS

Miranda: now don’t you feel so much better about the future

May: funnily enough, i do. (not sure what that says about my mental state….)