It's Labor Day?

For the last nine years, I was a lawyer at the Federal Reserve Board and a total slave to the federal holiday schedule. I typically would start looking forward to Labor Day weekend no later than July 5. Labor Day kicks off that wonderful 5-month period during which there are one or two federal holidays a month. It also features hands-down the best weather of any federal holiday and does not involve either cooking for a crowd or going over to someone else's house to be part of a crowd (a real bonus for the introverts among us). I think it would be safe to say that Labor Day always has been my favorite federal holiday. I even like Labor Day better than Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which falls around my birthday and frequently got me a long birthday weekend.

In light of my enduring fondness for Labor Day, something very strange happened this year. I did not even realize Labor Day was coming until last Friday, when I just happened to hear someone mention it on the radio. If it hadn't been for that, I probably would not have known about Labor Day until this morning, when I no doubt would have been caught wondering aloud why my significant other was not going to work. What a difference a year and a non-working perspective make! I guess that's to be expected, given the purpose and title of the holiday.

Now that I finally am with the program, I would like to wish everyone, workers and non-workers alike, a happy Labor Day. It is a beautiful September day out there -- at least in the DC metro area -- and I hope that folks will make the most of it.