What Holiday?

Americans: can we please get our act together with the whole *what constitutes a day off* thing?  Today is Columbus Day, celebrating a guy who did not *discover* America and was actually, according to some of the guys who sailed with him, a sick, depraved, cruel excuse for a man.  My kids have off from school.  Their out-of-school-time program is closed.  We won't get mail and the banks are closed, which doesn't mean much because who goes to the actual bank anymore anyway?

My place of work, however, and that of most others, is open.  Retail businesses are all open with their Columbus Day $14.92 specials.  Unless you are a person who works in a bank or at a non-profit organization, or in education, you are probably working today.  Unless you had to use a vacation day or a sick day to stay at home to watch the kids.

I spent many years working in direct patient care in the hospital setting.  My co-workers and I were always bemused at our non-healthcare friends who expected to not work on, not just Thanksgiving Day, but the day after.  And it's not just healthcare people: who do you think is working at the restaurants you go to on Thanksgiving, or the movie you go see on Christmas Day, or the hotel you stay at on the Fourth of July?  People who are working, that's who.

The holidays can't be separated from the demands of retail: President's Day demands that you buy a Car.  Now.  In fact, I cannot believe that I am not somewhere RIGHT NOW getting my 14.92% OFF of EVERYTHING.  Soon, it will be the time to shop for Thanksgiving, because you must need another turkey-shaped soup tureen and orange tablecloth to go with your Pilgrims.

So, when I am made Empress of Everything, I will pick ten days out of the year on which no one will work, except for the hospital peeps, who will get super-triple-overtime, because I will remember my friends when I am Empress.