Back from Vacation

Hi everyone. I'm back. I've been on vacation and using my sick days to take time off. Necessary time off. I only get 10 vacation days this year, which doesn't seem like much (to me at least). Vacation was a nice rest and it's sad to come back to work. Gone are the days of month long winter breaks. No more will I have a week off come mid-spring. Summer vacation? What's that? College offered the most time off, but high school still had enough lengthy vacation time to make me now realize I'll probably never have that again. A stupid realization, really, since it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. But with the New Year the cold, hard fact of living in a new phase of my life has solidified even greater.

Maybe this is common for all graduates during their first year out. Maybe come May the cycle will be complete and I will have fully shed my previous, educational calendar mindset. Probably not. I'm sure everyone wistfully remembers and longs for the more innocent time of their youths, when an end was always in sight and the next step would only be some years away. Now, however, there is no end in sight. What is the end? A promotion? Switching jobs? Changing careers? Retirement? The big sleep? Or do I look the other way to find some kind of solace - scheduled vacation, federal holidays, weekends, quitting time, lunch hour, coffee break? Either way, it's not too comforting. Maybe I should just have a different mindset when it comes to work. Instead of looking forward to when I won't be working, maybe it would make more sense to look forward to when I am working. Another obvious, stupid realization. But how to make that happen?

I don't have the answer now, but I'm working on it.

Happy New Year.

Columbus Day

Courtesy of geocities.com. He looks angry.

Columbus Day, or, as my mom likes to call it "Day of the Indigenous Peoples," is the day we celebrate Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue back in 1492, only to mistakenly crash onto already-inhabited lands and become the first person to wear the Century 21 Gold Blazer and win the Cadillac (the British colonists came second - they only got the set of steak knives).

While Columbus and his Day may be surrounded by controversy (What about the Indians/Native Americans/American Indians? What about the Vikings up north? Didn't he first land in the Caribbean?), we celebrate his accomplishment because we honor man's intrepid spirit to face the unknown and explore beyond our horizons for science, understanding, and new, exciting spices. If it weren't for Columbus, the New World might not have been discovered until much, much later. Like two years later! So every year we take pause and reflect on one of humanity's greatest accomplishments - the day the world became a little bit smaller but still managed to grow in our imagination. To facilitate these ponderous moments, schoolchildren across the land have a day off.

And I don't.

Yes, I'm complaining! Of course I am. What else do I do? Is school so taxing on the wee ones that they need another three-day weekend? They just had Labor Day, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Ok, ok. It's the only day in October they get off. Right? Fine - give the kiddies a break.

Can...can I have the day off, too? I don't see why not? Will industry collapse, will the foundations of American capitalism be shaken to its core if we have one more day to gripe about tomorrow? Perhaps the powers that be think that if we get this day we'll be asking for more. What's next, they ask? Arbor Day? Birthdays? The anniversaries of very special moments from Friends?

(I apologize for the Friends joke. That was lazy writing, and I'm too lazy to change it.)

One day off a month helps boost morale, keeps us fresh and energized. We also have something to look forward to. Perhaps some of us have vacation and/or personal days, but some of us want to save those for when we really need them. Like for dentist appointments or adding that extra day to your vacation. Having a three-day weekend will make workers more relaxed and upbeat. We also hate Mondays. There's just a stigma attached to it. Even if we started on Tuesday and worked on Saturday we would be much happier. Again, Office Space gets it right. So why not give us one day off, on a Monday, so we can toil away at Excel with just a tad less contempt?