Mourning the fading of a 20 year relationship

I have a Yahoo e-mail. It’s been my primary e-mail for 20 (!) years, and lately, it’s been giving me big problems.

I log in and after the mail page opens, within literally a second, it crashes and restarts. Then, with increasingly frequency, it crashes as I use it. It came to a point where it was crashing once a minute.

Other Yahoo users relate that after last year’s big hacking scandal, they too have had similar issues. I could and probably will take it to a computer expert, but for now, when I think about the task, I get tired and prefer to divert to other things, so the item remains on my To Do list.

Part of my procrastination is an avoidance of bad news. I’ve had this account for 20 years and it’s a big part of me, in the way that e-mails are a big part of people’s lives.

I was just laughing about this and the origins of this account with a friend, James Scullary, who was there at its inception. It was 1997, and Yahoo had just started offering free e-mail. I was working at KHNL (NBC) at the time, and some of my coworkers were opening accounts, and told me I should, too.

I know for sure it was producer Nissa Buth who walked me through the steps, but the others sitting in the producer quad, I think, were James and Su Shin (Meisenzhal). “E-mail is the wave of the future!” Nissa exclaimed, or something to that effect.

The wave of the future! What a thought, now! Ha! Millennials have told me e-mail is so “old school”!

I probably should have taken it more seriously and used a proper handle that involved my real name, but I came up with a ridiculously drag-queen sounding moniker that included the word “diva,” not understanding that one day, I’d be sending resumes electronically.

My goodness. In the time I’ve had this e-mail, I’ve gone through several men (before settling on one), six residences, three jobs, two dogs, two cats, and started one human life.

I’m afraid to be told I have to close it for good. Right now, I just let it sit dormant and choose to use an existing  Gmail alias account as my primary one (the last part does NOT say @gmail.com, but it does go to Gmail when I check it.)

For now, at least. Not dealing with this problem might be part of my transition to get used to not having it.

“You’ll always be the Diva to me,” assured James. We laughed some more. Oh, I miss that carefree time of my life and the long-lasting friends of that newsroom.

Anyhow, I suppose it’s OK if I do have to permanently close the Diva account. Life changes, and you change with it.

At least my new handle is very grown-up sounding. Because, you know, I’m such a grown-up now!