Google has made a couple of small changes to GMail.
First off, current GMail user’s now have 100 invites that they can use. Need a GMail account? Feel free to contact me, and I’ll send one (or more) to you. Also, OCC has a GMail Invite Thread that you can make use of as well. — It helps if you’ve been a member there for a while. 
If you live in the US and have a mobile phone you can also sign up for GMail with it.