Just One Day

Interesting--the dynamic of the three-day weekend. Especially the first "official" three-dayer of the summer (and for once, we have the weather to prove it). My office was only half full today, the parking lot half empty. People off to out-of-town graduations or the first trip to the Cape, colleagues leaving early to beat the traffic or just relish the time a little more.

That one extra day carries a lot of weight. People grab onto the extra free time for dear life, piggy-backing vacation time to make it a four-day stint. Or they take a whole week, knowing that Monday is a freebie. I like my job a lot, and yet I'm looking forward to the realization on Sunday night that the next day isn't a work day, just like everyone else. Call it 24-hour power.

Of course, this only happens if you're lucky enough to have a standard office job--for folks in retail, at the movie theaters, and in food service, this is just another weekend, and in fact may mean extra work to handle the sales and the crowds. Remember that when you're catching a matinee of Shrek 3 on Monday afternoon and be a little nicer to the ticket taker.