11 Things Only Kids Who Were Sick In The Summer Of 2002 Will Understand

Being sick in the summer is so weird! But being sick in the summer of 2002 was its own kind of weird, one that you would never understand unless it happened to you. Any of these feels sound familiar?

When you felt like you were coming down with something but weren ‘t sure if it was a cold or allergies, and also weren ‘t sure if Zoolander was a movie everyone liked or not because it hadn ‘t yet achieved its cult status.

When you drank hot tea even though it was scorching outside! (In 2002 it was “HOT, DRY ACROSS MUCH OF UNITED STATES; UPPER MID-WEST EXPERIENCES WETTER-THAN-AVERAGE SUMMER ‘)

When you couldn ‘t decide if you wanted to watch one of your several DVDs on your family ‘s new DVD player or if you wanted to watch some (pre-youtube!!!) videos on MSN on your (Dude You ‘re Getting A) Dell desktop computer.

When your friend called on the landline to tell you the geometry homework and you had to stand near the kitchen counter cuz the cord was so short and cell phones were getting to be sorta common but you sure as heck didn ‘t have one yet.

When you wanted to eat your favorite whimsical condiment, purple ketchup, but it didn ‘t go well with the chicken noodle soup you had to eat because you were sick.

When your parents let you have a sip of the New Coke they ‘d been saving in the basement from 1985. You thought, oh boy, this will seem very anachronistic if I ever remember this day years later but why would I be doing that, anyways? Is this what kind of content will be big online later? Also, what is “content???”

When you couldn ‘t go out to play softball with your boys because you were sick so you read the Boston Globe “Spotlight” piece instead and your life was changed forever because you ‘re also Catholic.

When your dad stopped by the store after work in his PT Cruiser Dream Cruiser to buy some more tissues for your runny nose because you had used up all the ones at the house.

When Ejay got eliminated from American Idol even though you loved his performance of “My Girl ‘ and suddenly you were using the tissues for sick stuff but also for sad/cry stuff.

When you heard on the radio (radio was bigger back in 2002!!!) that Nomar Garciaparra hit three home runs with eight RBI on his birthday in the opener of a day-night doubleheader and you looked at your Baby G watch and were all, “Doubleheader?? How long are they going to play baseball today?? That ‘s how long I ‘ve napped! Because I ‘m sick!”