It Seems Like Years Since It's Been Clear

We all knew it had to happen: I'm getting a new computer soon.
This one is nine years old. At the time, in 1998, it was state-of-the-art: Pentium 2 processor! 8 whole gigabytes of harddrive space! The brand-new Windows 98! Internet Explorer 4! A CD PLAYER OMG! A floppy disk drive (remember those?)
However... that was nine years ago. The monitor is blurry (no amount of fiddling with the buttons changes it), it's dusty, it's slower than a grandma covered in molassas in January in northern Canada, I'm limited to what I can download and what programs I can use (AIM said I can't have the new version until I get a new computer.)
For awhile my parents had no money, especially after my father's open-heart surgery when he couldn't work as much. And we were on welfare. But that was four years ago, and now we've got plenty of money. We had the houses painted inside and out, got a new air conditioners, a new refrigerator, a new oven, a new microwave, a new television (which is now outdated next to all that plasma HD crap, but whatever), digital cable, a new stereo, new carpet and tiles, cell phones... We've got everything else. We can put off getting a new computer no longer.
The printer that came with this computer gave out a few weeks ago (a weird string... thing popped out, so it was basically dead...) So, you know.
Plus the last week or so the internet and the computer itself have been so freaking slow you can't even imagine it. My mother counted 70 seconds for a page to load. No amount of virus-scanning or spyware scanning or defragmenting has changed anything.

So, as you can imagine, this is kind of an emotional time for me. Unlike with Bob, my laptop, which died kind of quickly, I've known for a long time that this one had to go. It's nine years old now. If computer years are anything like dog years, this thing is way past its prime. It's ready to retire. (Actually, it's a she- I named it Ami-chan after Sailor Mercury's Japanese name. She was the smart one.)

It's hard to say goodbye to something you grew up with. This computer's been here for me through middle school, fifth grade even. It was here for Sexton's essays. It was here when I first played Carmen Sandiego. It was here when I first discovered Sailor Moon and then when I discovered it again. It was here when I first discovered the internet. It was here when I had no friends and it was here when I finally got some great ones. It helped me make my first webpages. It was here when I got AIM, when I got deadjournal and then livejournal, and myspace. It taught me how to type. It was here before my grandfather got too dementia'd out and used to sit with me while I used it (it used to live in the other house till a few years before my grandfather died in 2003.). It was here for so many changes in my life, and it's hard to let go.

But I'm tired of having old or second-hand stuff (Bob was second-hand). I'm tired of being outdated. It's not a person (though I treat it like one) who would be offended at being traded in for a newer model (like the old wife hating the new trophy wife.)

So this will be my formal, public goodbye to a lovely, lovely computer. I'll always love you, Ami-chan. I'll never, ever forget you. And thank you for everything. (Oh my God, I'm crying so hard right now. And my computer's making noises, too. IT KNOWS. There's a lot of guilt here, people.)

You always remember your first. :)

<3 forever.

-5:39 AM (yeah, I really need sleep.)