Long Weekend My Behind

Sorry for the language in the title, but I’ll probably be using my swear quota below.

It’s been a while since my last post, mainly because I haven’t really had anything to say. Monday I took off as my optional holiday, which leads me to two things.

First, I work for a State funded school. (If you can still call it that. The State has been cutting our budget for I don’t know how long. Several years back we were actually at the point that we could become private, but the stipulations for the University’s creation probably prevent that.) Anyway, you might think that being a State institution, we would get most if not all State or Federal holidays. Wrong. We get New Years Day, 1-2 days for Spring Break, Fourth of July, a day for Fall break (Last year I didn’t even get the Tuesday off for voting), 2 days for Thanksgiving, around 4 days for Christmas, and Martin Luther King Jr. day. That comes to about 12 days, which isn’t too bad.

What gets me is the mandated MKL day. We don’t get President’s Day, or Memorial Day (Fitting given Clemson’s Military heritage), or Labor Day. In fact we used to get Tuesday for voting in the Fall, but that day was taken for the mandated observation of MLK Day. That just seems silly to put this day above the others I’ve mentioned. I’m proud to say that MLK lived in my country, and I’m also proud to see the strides that Equal Rights has taken. I have friends who have studied the teachings of MLK for years, and we believe that MLK would have preferred Civil Rights Day on April 11^th to be observed rather than a day for him. It’s funny that we place a man above the cause he spent his life fighting for. I’m pretty sure he would disagree with that decision.

The real problem is that the day was basically forced observance. That means that state institutions with peculiar schedules have to take the day even if they normally don’t close for other holidays or it’s a bad time to take off. It’s a symptom of moving decisions up the command chain. The decision is made farther and farther from the people it affects, and the result is an inflexible structure that is not beneficial to increasingly large groups of people.

Anyway, we do get the benefit of having an optional holiday that we can take around virtually any holiday we want, so I took mine Monday for Memorial Day. And I feel better for it.

The only thing is I spent most of Monday cleaning, though I did watch a little of Sum of All Fears and Hunt for Red October. We had been chastised for the state of the microwave by my two roommates’ mother. I explained that I had previously been doing most of the cleaning, unless I could badger someone else into helping. Then I had to double check some of their work. Finally I had gotten tired of badgering and recleaning after someone. I decided to let it go until someone said something. So after their mother left, I waited a week to see if the shame had affected anyone. It did, me, so I went back to doing the cleaning. Oh well, at least I wasn’t at work. It wouldn’t be too bad, but I have an aversion to thoroughly cleaning with guests in the house. Given the increasing frequency of guests, I’ll have to get over that. I’m trying to decide whether to clean on afternoons after work, when others are too tired to clean, or on Saturdays and Sundays after I finish the yard work while guests are present. Decisions, decisions.

Wow, I don't think I swore once.