I was in DC earlier today, and I noticed that I wasn't able to send or receive email using Outlook.  I figured it was just Starbucks/TMobile bossiness.  But no. 

No blogging tonight because I'm trying to quickly clean up my mailbox before it stops working altogether.  The problem?  Nearly two gigabytes of mail -- sent mail, deleted mail, hoarded mail, yet-to-be-responded-to mail, mail I like to look back at, forgotten mail, funny mail.

It turns out (I didn't know this) that no Outlook "profile" can handle more than two gigabytes.  So that particular identity of mine had become nonresponsive.  The guy on the phone said that the profile might have been corrupted and urged me to leave all the mail behind.  With much ceremony, he walked me through creating a new profile -- a new me -- and then we said goodbye.

I'm hoping I can disobey his command because I don't think I can manage without this electronic memory.  I also don't want to rely on webmail because I can't always be online, and I don't like either the Google or Yahoo! interfaces for longterm use (although I use both frequently for list mail and other special-purpose mail).

It's been a sobering experience, this evening of mail.  My new "me" received a bunch of mail that may never be answered -- so forgive me.