I wanted to share a somebody story that I think you’ll really enjoy. Like, so good I was compelled to write you an email over my morning eggs and coffee.
I’ve used Somebody 1.0 before, delivering a message to a friend who was in the room with me, nothing crazy. But I loved the concept.
I am living in Paris, France right now, and composed a Somebody message for my friend back in Oakland, California (friend, like, ex-boyfriend but that has just way too much weight to it, ya know?). While I’ve been living in France for the past year, he’s been taking care of my cat, or if I’m not careful, very slowly catnapping her. My cat, Muffins, is just pretty much the coolest ever. She goes by Muff for short.
So, a few days ago I composed a message, reading: “Hey Max, it’s Lauren. Tell muff I said what’s up” (fist bump). Pretty great message, I thought.
I tried to get it to him for a few days, requesting multiple people to send him the message, but to no avail. Finally, early this French morning, I opened up the app while still in bed and saw that Becky was 300ft away from Max 2 hours ago. Great, Becky, I chose you.
I fall back asleep between alarm snoozes and wake up to an alert on my phone that, in fact, Becky is going to deliver my message. Being around 11 pm in California, I assumed they were out at a bar or Max was at work at his restaurant and Becky was maybe a patron or a co-worker. But the reality of the delivery was far better than I could imagine.
Becky and two of her friends were downtown Oakland, probably having a drink. Max was about a mile away from downtown inside his house in West Oakland, cleaning his room. His front door was open, screen door shut, when he heard some people yelling his name from outside. He goes out on his porch to find Becky and her two friends in the street. He responds, they approach, and then deliver the message. “Hey Max, it’s Lauren. Tell muff I said what’s up” (fist bump). Mind(s) explode. Max is blown away, I can only assume that a minute or so of “no way!"'s and giggles are shared. They continue to chat and explain themselves. He introduces them to Muffins (which was the icing on the cake if you ask me) and tells how the message sender (me) lives all the way in France. They find that hilarious.
They shared a cigarette and a drink on the porch and according to Max “The people were way cool” and "We just hung out for a while” and “Were total buds now” and “That was way fun.” I asked if they exchanged contact info and he said no, but maybe he should’ve asked. Let it be an experience, I said. Which, by golly, it was a great one. And I wasn’t even there.
Thank you from Max, Becky, Muffins and myself.
