My Email Addiction: How I Love Thee, Inbox.

Thank you to Yahoo! Mail for sponsoring this post about staying connected. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Every morning after I've stumbled out of bed, gotten my kids settled with their breakfast, and turned on the coffee machine, I can be found checking my email.

Obsession? Compulsion? Addiction? Yes, yes, and yes.

I'm not the only one, right? What would life be like without email? Opening my inbox and finding messages from friends, family, business contacts, blog comments, and more is somehow just so satisfying that I can't bear to leave it one minute more than I have to.

I'd love to say that I do a great job at responding to those emails, but that's something that I struggle with and I'm sure many people can relate to. I have good intentions, it just seems like keeping up gets more difficult each day.

And then there are the emails that top the rest in putting me further behind because I have to read and reread them. No, I'm not talking about the meaningful ones from family and friends, I'm talking about the ones that make me laugh due to the complete and utter randomness. Those are the ones that make me feel like I have a pile like this waiting in my mind:

Not sure what I'm talking about?

This one came through the contact form here on my blog and it just might be one of my favorites (I copied it directly, so yes, it was in all caps. Made it even better to read when I felt like she was yelling it at me):

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE I CAN GET THE OVEN LINERS YOU USE TO SELL ON QVC. QVC SAYS YOU NO LONGER SELL THEM. I RAN OUT AND BOUGHT A DIFFERENT KIND FROM THEM AND WHEN I WAS HEATING THE OVEN THE SMOKE ALARM WENT OFF. YOUR LINERS NEVER DID THAT, YOURS IS MORE LIKE PAPER WHILE THE NEW ONE IS LIKE RUBBER AND IT IS SILICONE. COULD YOU HELP ME PLEASE AND WHY AREN'T YOU SELLING THIS PRODUCT ANYMORE? lOVE YOUR ARMOIRES, WE HAVE 2 OF THEM, BEAUTIFUL, SO NICE. HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME,
(name)

I'm not sure where to even start with my questions to begin to try and make sense of it, but I'm still getting a good laugh and it's months later. I sure hope that she eventually found a way to get more of my great paper oven liners, though.

As well as the personal benefits (e.g. fulfilling my addiction), I really don't remember how we kept in touch before email. We're able to hear from someone across the street or on the other side of the world in a matter of moments - am I the only one who thinks that technology is amazing to be able to do that? Yahoo sums it up in a cute way...

So, I'll admit it, I'm obsessed with email. I'm never quite sure what I'm going to find when I pull up my inbox each day or how much it is going to make me scratch my head, but I just can't help getting excited with the anticipation of it. There is a whole virtual collection of my life in there and who knows what is going to be added next?

What about you? Are you obsessed with checking your email? Do you have one in particular that makes you laugh (or cry) (or just shake your head)?