ita, I am not Jillian, but I am a pocket crusader. There are so many dresses and skirts where pockets would be so easy, and yet they aren't added. Probably because it costs more. And we are addicted to cheap clothes, and if there isn't a demand, makers will go for profit over functionality. Sad, but one of the reasons I took the sewing class!

Flea, btdt and it was epically annoying.

Sad, but one of the reasons I took the sewing class!

I really need to spend a weekend and just add pockets to all my skirts. It's not like I don't have the capability, I'm just lazy. And I have "more exciting" sewing projects to do. But, pockets!

ita, I am not Jillian, but I am a pocket crusader.

I love that the polka-dotted eShakti dress I bought has pockets. Big ones, too!

Part of the reason I am really getting into wearing riding-style jackets (British hunt -style ones) is that they have POCKETS.

But since I'm committed to carrying a purse anyway, I might as well lug it along?

I guess it's different for me, since, yeah I do want either or both of my Nook and my tablet. I'd rather have my chequebook than not.

Very few of my clothes (and I wear nowhere as much in the way of full skirts as you do) have anywhere to put a pocket big enough to any purse I've seen my mother carry, for instance.

I consider the bag I carry to be 75% of the time superior than any pocket option I've seen my father wear, for instance. I'm not going to use breast pockets on any shirt or blouse, and some breast pockets of jackets might be big enough, but I don't want a big flat thing in them, or a heavily weighted number of things. Keys, phone, money clip--front pocket folds over when I sit--no good for phone, keys jab me, coins bounce my leg when I walk.

I have maybe 15-20 percent of clothes that I could add a useful pocket to, and for that incidence, I don't care, because there's no point switching the bag out for that when I can just have everything in one place for most outfits. Most of the time my bag is my more convenient option.

I mean, seriously, where does the stuff I moisturise my hands with go? And my lips? MANDATORY.

Sports injuries. There was some study years ago based on Armed Forces that tried to total up the extra costs from female soldiers and found that volleyball injuries were among the highest categories of expenses.

There's a Top Gun joke in there somewhere, I just can't find it. Talk to me, Goose.

flea something like that happened at my Dad's old company.

They spent a year (I think) recruiting, hiring, and training several employees who moved across country for the job.

Then they laid them all off. Dad said he tried to warn them that the work would pick up again rather quickly, but they laid off the employees.

About a year later - work picks up again, and they go looking to rehire for the same positions they had laid off.

Work frustration ahead. My basic job title is Project Controls, which means handling the internal project management for our projects. Our group is split into Federal and Commercial. I'm in the Federal group, but my workload is kinda 50/50. Anyway, today I got a call from a high level manager, who got me involved in handling 5 very complicated projects. Well, he has another project that he has been asking for help on and he contacted the Commercial group lead, who I guess isn't giving him the answers he wants. So he called me directly to see if I could just jump in and take on that project. I can't, my time is completely book, especially due to the other projects I'm working on for him.

I just feel stuck in the middle. I did contact the Commercial lead to check in. He said he has someone working on it, but when I asked a few questions, the answers I got sounds like the guy has run into a brick wall and doesn't know how to go around, hasn't even looked at the things I look at first. I told him that I could, potentially, have time to help in a few weeks, but basically said good luck.

That should be it, but I keep thinking about it and being stuck in the middle. I've tried to get a hold of my manager to touch base on this, but he hasn't been available. This high level manager likes what I've done in the past and while I can't just pick up the work, I'd be happy to walk someone else through the stuff I had customized for him. But it doesn't seem like anyone doing the work wants that.

Just grrrrrrrrr.

Grrr, Suzi. I think the best you can do is keep your manager informed that you're getting requests for your time outside the standard process, and you don't have the time to give, anyway.

As for me, I called my lawyer and I called the regulator and the regulator's all, "no, you have to do what we say," and I didn't swing my law degree at them or refer to the Sovereignty clause, but ARGH.

And I'm out of the office tomorrow. This better not blow up on me.