Going in Circles with AdSense

I set up an AdSense account over a year ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it, didn't earn much money from it, and generally forgot about it. Then I got rid of the email address I set it up with.

Recently I got a post card from Google AdSense, giving me my new pin number. Then I tried to login to my AdSense account, but had forgotten my password. So, I thought: no problem, I'll reset the password. Except of course the email address doesn't work anymore.

Several months ago I did set up a gmail account, and I have other email accounts; just not the one I used initially with AdSense. But how do I tell the good folks at AdSense this... The "decision path" mapped out for me by AdSense to resolve this involves applying for a new AdSense account, which they say will be denied because I can't have TWO accounts. They say the "denial" will include a link that allows me to STOP the old account and transfer any balance over $10 to my new account. But I think I had a balance of almost (but not quite) $10 on the account... so I'll lose that. It took me nearly 17 months to reach that amount and I hate to lose it, but it seems the only way forward.

This earning big bucks through blogging is way harder than it seems. 17 months of blogging to get $9.72 worth of "money", in a system that doesn't send you a check until you hit $100. Only 14 years to go until I see a check from Google AdSense. :) I sure hope they send me my denial soon so I can get started again.