To those in Canada: Happy Thanksgiving!
To those in the US: Happy Columbus Day!
We are not particularly celebrating either holiday, so this has been another one of those nebulous Mondays that throws off my sense of the week. I have to keep reminding myself, "Tomorrow is Tuesday. I have a seminar on Tuesday."
One nice thing this week is that a Monday holiday actually means getting a brief reprieve in my schedule since I usually teach on Mondays. Of course, it also means having my son at home all day. Last year, I had no responsibilities on Mondays and we had not yet found full-time care for our son (that was a fun first semester!) so there was nothing to mark the day as special.
Of course, my wife did not have work off today. Columbus Day is one of those holidays in the US that is not observed across the board. The federal government, most local governments, and banks are closed, but otherwise there's no consistency. It can turn into a politically charged issue, given implications of racism and genocide that accompany the story of America's "discovery." For a short time, I worked at a company that alternated Columbus Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as paid holidays, one in even years, the other in odd. My wife's current company only observes MLK, Jr. Day, so she was officially on the clock today.
Nonetheless, we managed to get out for a nice walk this morning and have enjoyed some family time. My son took a long nap this morning (overdue given that he skipped his nap entirely yesterday and pretty much woke up at 4:45 this morning), and I used the time to get most of my work done for tomorrow. One more chunk and I'll actually be prepared for once.
We briefly considered a turkey dinner for today, but have decided to push that back to US Thanksgiving when we'll probably host some of the other students from the States. So it's off to my roast beef pierogies.
No comments:
Post a Comment