There.  I said it.  Being a typical guy the "L" word is not something I give up easily.

I know she is not perfect.  She is basically flat, and for that all of the other girls make fun of her.  To say her fashion sense is lacking is an understatement.  She has been pretty much wearing the same getup for the last decade.  When the web came along for a time she had nothing to wear at all.  When she finally did get dressed she just did not look right, with twisties and other things that nobody else was wearing.  Finally she has XPages. None of us have the heart to tell her that the others have been wearing something similar for years now.  Although I liked it at first, some days I wonder if blue and yellow go that well together.

It has been almost 15 years ago since I first met her.  She was only 2 at the time, but even then I knew she was different.  She was easy to talk to, was as at home in a group as she was talking one on one, and she could do things faster than the other kids.  She spoke several languages, and what she said was so obvious, it seems odd that some people just did not understand her.  They would talk behind her back, saying she could only do this or that, was not dependable, and could not do any  any kind of heavy lifting.  

She is getting on in years.  She has had some work done on her backend recently.  In some ways it looks better,  but its fatter than it used to be.  Even still she still moves better than most of the others. She puts a web server, application server, security and workflow engine, and a full development environment in one small package, and takes it everywhere.  Some of the girls would need a flatbed truck to do the same thing.  She may be a bit of a cougar, but I still think she is hot. Full of Barcardi and Botox, I still think she is hot!

I thought about leaving her a few times over the years, but I have hung in there.  A lot of her old friends are gone now.  They have moved on to the younger girls, the ones that tell you they give it away for free.  I have talked to them too, but it does not take too long to realize they can only promise what NSF delivered years ago, and if you want anything but the basics, its going to cost some serious cash.  

In some ways I feel sorry for her.  Her parents sold her, and the new ones have treated her badly.  Whenever someone would come calling for NSF they would make sure they introduced them to her step sister first.  Once they even dressed the step sister in NSF's yellow dress, hoping people would not notice the difference.  We all recognized it was not her, but for some reason, maybe because we did not want to piss her parents off, we never said anything. I felt bad about that. Still do.  They recently had another  big birthday party for her, and seem to be giving her a lot more attention, but I wonder if they have some hidden agenda in mind.

Time has really flown by, and I am realizing that we have grown old together.   I guess we will continue to do what we do until one of us is gone for good.

Pardon me. "Yellow" by Coldplay just came on www.last.fm.  I need a moment.