I’m a fiercely loyal person.
I’ve cheered for the Seattle Seahawks since Chuck Knox came on board as head coach.
I’ve been married to the same man for 40 years. I’ve shopped at the same grocery store for the same amount of time, even after they moved an inconvenient distance from my home.
Speaking of, I’ve lived in the same house for 33 years.
The same stylist has done my hair in the same style for about 15 years. It’s probably time for a new ’do, but not a new stylist.
A friend gently pointed out that fierce loyalty might be another way of saying I’m change-averse.
Fair point, especially in light of recent circumstances that foisted change upon me.
Approximately 27 years ago, we got our first home computer – a big, bulky Gateway. So long ago that my first email address was AOL and we had a dial-up connection. At the time, I was pregnant with our fourth kid and only used email to stay in touch with out-of-town family and friends. Remember the days before social media memes when we would send each other funny jokes/stories?
My husband decided we needed a family email address. He discovered a free version of Juno and created an account: D for Derek, C for Cindy, and our last name. That’s what I’ve used ever since, even though Derek changed his personal email long ago.
By that time, I’d launched my freelance writing career and all of my work contacts were tied to Juno, so I persevered and paid to upgrade to a professional account.
Fast forward to a year ago, when that account was repeatedly hacked. If you received a note supposedly from me with the subject line Cindy Hval invites you … I’m sorry.
I spent the past year changing my passwords every few weeks. At my age, I’ve only got so many passwords left in me!
Equally annoying, the Juno spam filter never worked, so I was constantly flooded with bogus links to recipe sites and political junk.
When my account got hacked again last month, a few days before we left for vacation, I’d finally had enough.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” may be my motto, but Juno email was well and truly broken.
Since I already had a Gmail account (cindyhval@gmail.com), I opted to make the switch.
That’s when I discovered changing your email address is almost as labor-intensive as changing your physical address.
I started with a bang by sending this note to everyone in my contact list: “I’m ending my relationship with Juno. It turns out breaking up isn’t hard to do.”
Except, unfortunately, it is because I forgot the “l” in Gmail when I sent the first batch.
Then I realized everything from my bank account to my healthcare providers to my library card was tied to that email. Even worse, businesses make it very difficult to update your email address. I’ve ended up unsubscribing from a lot of stuff and hoping I can figure out how to resubscribe later.
Navigating a new email program is like learning to speak Italian or French. All of my tidy, easily accessible folders have to be replicated in an unfamiliar layout. And sooner or later I’m going to have to sync it with Microsoft Outlook.
I am not good at syncing.
On the bright side, I haven’t had to create a new password in several weeks!
For now, if you need me, I’ll be crossing off my old email address and inking my new one onto approximately 300 business cards because I’m too cheap to order new ones.
Au revoir, Juno. Vive le changement!
Cindy Hval 