Time Traveling

I've had the same email address for three and a half years now, so I decided to make a backup of the messages for it today. I use a Gmail account, so this way, if I lose my internet access, I can still get to the messages, since they will be stored on my hard drive as well. The backing up is a slightly tedious process. I started Thunderbird (email application), created a new account using my Gmail username and settings, and pressed the download button. Thousands of messages - almost 4,000 - to download, organize, and store. For now, I just seperated them by year. As the messages downloaded, I found myself clicking on some of them, and traveling back in time.

Early 2005, just giving out my address and getting on a mailing list for Lego-related software. Not very many messages from this time.
Late 2005, dealing with a class partner who was an asshole. Working as a Java tutor for the first time in early 2006.
Mid - 2006, getting the first emails - full of love and adoration from my then new girlfriend, now ex girlfriend. She even sent me a naughty message after the first time we had sex. Hee hee hee.
Late 2006, emails about the first item I bought on eBay - a new cell phone. Correspondence between me and my classmates for Math 125 about our shared project. That was a fun class, most of the time.
Early 2007, subscribing to my first daily email - Spanish word of the day, which I am still subscribed to. I also subscribed to get a comic strip emailed to me daily. More emails from Kitty and various classmates. Kitty's emails are some serious, some sad, others happy and loving.
Late 2007, more emails from classmates. Finding out that I've been accepted to the UW, and sending out an email announcing that. I got a few congratulatory responses back. Emails from Kitty continue. We bickered a little during that period, so they were.. interesting.
Early '08, lots more correspondence with the UW, classmates, various mailing lists. Emails between Kitty and I still trickle in, although the tone is a little different now.
Mid '08, messages drop. Now it's just my mailing lists, some Kitty, and relatives and neighbors. Kitty's messages drop sharply around mid-August.

I'm not going to leave a paper trail behind - I'm leaving an electronic trail. I should delete some of the old messages, but I have an infinite amount of storage space - sort of - on my Gmail account, so I don't see any reason to. I only deleted one message, aside from spam, in the entire time I have had the account. That was a message with several nude pictures that Kitty sent me once. Now I'm glad I did.

Speaking of Kitty, I went to Seattle Central today. I saw an advisor, and then I tried to see Kitty. She wasn't there. I guess that means she dropped her class. I was a little surprised, but I'm also dissapointed. She wants to get out of school and finish her degree so badly, but she keeps dropping her classes at the first sign of trouble. And this one was her fault, leaving the CD with her reading material on it in the computer lab and losing it. I feel sorry for her, but I also shake my head a little bit at her irresponsibility. She's always been that way a little. Losing something, not getting something done, missing deadlines on her schoolwork, and so on. I helped her when I could, but I couldn't always. She always had an excuse ready that removed any blame from her an dplaced it on someone else - the teacher was unreasonable, the assignment was too much, etc. One of these days, Kitty will need to learn to take some more responsiblity. Otherwise, she's going to be stuck where she is all her life.
What a waste that would be.