Hi. My name is Gigi and I have a problem.....

Emails have been on my mind A LOT these past few days.

I currently have three separate accounts.  One for work, a personal one and one for my blog/shopping.

It sounds insane, but it's not.  I have it all under control.  Or so I thought.

A few years ago, my company forced me to submit to a quota system; a system whereby they limit the amount of email I can hang onto.  Anything that I thought should be saved should be sent to a "record retention" system. Let me say up front; this particular system sucks.  It is widely known throughout the company that if you save something to the system you will NEVER be able to find it again.

And thus, as with most stupid company policies, many of us have found ways to circumvent the process.  Whether it be by printing the email (yeah - so much for the "paperless" office of the future) or by saving the emails as .pdfs on our hard drives.

I complained, in passing, to a person I know in IT about this once and was promptly informed that *I* had held the company record for "email hoarding" prior to the implementation of the new system.

I was a bit shocked.  I mean really?  Doesn't everyone feel the need to save important emails - such as the one Jane sent to Jack about their "lunch" - and accidentally sent it to everyone? that gives all the details of how the Smith case was handled?

At any rate, my work email is now kept scrupulously clean - as I print and .pdf emails religiously and promptly hit delete.  (Yes, this "system" has now increased my work load regarding email).

But the reason I've been thinking about email lately has nothing to do with work email (no, I'm on vacation; no thoughts of work are allowed) is because I actually sat down and logged into one of my personal accounts yesterday.

I rarely actually get to "see" the whole inbox because usually I deal with email via my beloved Blackberry; so I was floored to note that I had almost over 1,800 emails in the inbox alone - at that was with me deleting all the spam as it came in via the phone.

As Hubby was sleeping on the couch and Man-Child was out and about for the evening and I had nothing better to do I began to go through them.  It was a tedious process to say the least.

But in the end I deleted approximately 1,746 emails and "filed" the rest in appropriately labeled folders.  Needless to say, I felt like I'd accomplished a major something - even if it was an "invisible" something.

I briefly thought about the other account and decided it was time for bed...until this morning.

This morning I ventured over to the other account and discovered that it's true.  I DO have a problem.  I AM an email hoarder.

I need help.