How do i get my gmail set up for this friggin thing?

This is how you friggin do it:

How to add / delete email addresses - BlackBerryFAQ

Welcome.

That's some friggin great link there

yeah, tried that. I'm getting an error telling me to try again. this has been the story for the last hour or so. any other ideas?

The link provided works just fine. Where are you getting an error telling you to try again? During your attempt to set up the account? At what point are you having a problem? You'll need to be more specific unless you want this thread to hit 50 posts before anyone has enough information to assist you.

i enter my user name and password, hit next, it starts doin' it's thing and then gives me an error message saying to try it again. that's it.

Are you doing this on the device or on your carrier's BIS website? Have you already setup your BIS username and password?

Also are you including @gmail.com on your username?

You could try going to m.google.com/mail on your device and download the google mail app and install it onto your device if you don't have it yet.

I take it you have POP or IMAP or both enabled in your account yes?

This could be your issue...

RIM BIS Account Integration Outage 24 Nov