I am my Old Self Again!

**Just as a quick note: I did blog yesterday. Twice, in fact -- one in the early afternoon and one in the evening, about 12 hours ago. Both posts were lost in publishing. It would be the first time I failed to post a blog entry since October 17th. But I did blog -- it's just lost somewhere in cyberspace. Please, if you find my blog entry somewhere, please tell it to come back home. Thank you.

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Back in the days, when I first got the internet, I used AOL. I used AOL for a long time, probably about 6 years or so. And during that time, I maintained one screenname, one ID, one e-mail address, one identity. I think most of my friends had to notify me every few months or so that they changed their identity to reflect the newest pop starlet's name or song or whatever, but I stayed resolute. I don't know if I just really liked my SN, or I just grew attached to it, but I just loved it.

Flor1123. That was what it was. Some people even preferred to just call me Flor because of my on-line presence as Flor1123. It was a name, unique to me. It wasn't like the plethora of other names, like QTgurl4ever or Ultim8qtness. It was timeless. It was perfect. It was me.

Then, about two years ago, I had to switch to DSL. It was only natural. I could no longer wait until someone's phonecall was finished to sign on -- I could no longer risk getting disconnected because someone called. I could no longer wait until my brother was done to get online. Then it struck me, that it wouldn't be in line with my frugal nature to pay for both DSL AND AOL. I could have gotten Hi-speed AOL, but my brother voted against it. So I had to wean myself off of AOL and search for another e-mail address. At first, the idea of using a "free" e-mail account was just so weird. I've always used AOL e-mail, and it worked great. By then, a separate program for AIM was already launched, so I didn't have to log into AOL to use IM. But it still took me months to get myself off of AOL. I think sometimes, I still miss the "You got mail" greeting I get from all the SPAM in the mailbox.

I cancelled AOL. It was horrible. It was like leaving a fraternity of some sort. No more, were the chatrooms and the chiming "You got mail!" But I was prepared for all of that. I had a new e-mail address at Yahoo!, and I told everyone that my address had changed. However, there was one minute detail that I was not prepared for.

I logged into AIM, with my old SN, and found myself staring at an error message. "Cancelled account." I tried, over and over again to log in, but only with the same answer. Immediately, I jumped onto the AIM webpage and searched for the answer to my problem. The answer I found, made me curl up in the fetal position and cry like there's no tomorrow. (Note: exaggeration -- my attempts to be a drama queen) It was originally an AOL SN, so when I cancelled AOL, the SN would be lost forever. I asked when I can use it again? Perhaps they do it like phone numbers, where they put it in some special recycling bin for a month or three before releasing it into the wild again. They gave me no specific time frame. If anything, their FAQ section seem to hint that it would be gone forever in the abyss of cancelled SN's!

Fast forward two years later: this morning, I signed into AIM. With the supposedly "temporary" screen name I created two years ago. And I found myself hating it. It wasn't me. Yuck. And out of the blue, I got a whim to try to log in with my old screen name. Just a try. It couldn't hurt to try! And I did. Of course I remember the password. And lo and behold, I successfully logged in. I had tried, periodically, every six months or so to log in to my old SN just to see if it would work, and it was the first time it did. I was so in shock, that I IM'ed myself! And it works! Yay!

So I got myself a celebratory mug of coffee and here I am. So my old and new screenname for AIM is: flor1123.

Current music: Norah Jones, Feels Like home -- how appropriate.