i love labor day weekend, as all labor lawyers should. it means the end of summer. i hate summer, and by the end of august i have usually had more than enough. also i often travel in early fall when i can get off-peak season tickets. but best of all, i love labor day because it is the only day of the year when i get off work and my wife does not.
living with an academic is generally a good thing. i get to live on a college campus with all of its facilities (it's like living in a country club), with heavily subsidized rent, and surrounded by intellectuals from all different disciplines. i also get the satisfaction in knowing that while this college once rejected me, i am now living here. they tried to keep me out in the late 80s, but i found a back door in a decade later. bwah ha ha! (actually, if they wanted to be rid of me, they should have just let me in. i would have stayed for only 4 years, never met my wife, and never lived here again. instead, i went elsewhere, married my wife and (assuming she gets tenure and does not dump me) i will be here forever. take that, nasty admissions people!!!) (no, i'm not bitter)
on the other hand. if you have a real job (i.e. a non-academic job) it can sometimes also be annoying, mostly because of all of the time they get off. while my neighbors complain that their 3 week christmas break is not that long this year, i have to remind them that my "christmas break" is exactly one day--december 25th. don't even talk to me about the summer, or spring break, or october break, or my wife's YEAR LONG SABBATICAL (at full pay, of course).
now, if my wife and/or neighbors ever read this, i know what they will do. they will fill up the comments with things like this:
"we do too work when class is not in session. we do our research. it's publish or perish, dude."
fine. i understand. save your comments. but they know as well as i do that when classes end, things definitely get a lot more leisurely around here. research or no, their schedule is many times more flexible during breaks than most non-academic jobs ever are. plus, they can always decide they need to research topics as the social structure of beach bums in french polynesia. then they will get a grant to fly to the south pacific and get paid to hang out on the beach. even with research taken into account, academia is a very good racket.
which brings me back to labor day--a holiday to celebrate the working class folks, not the ivory tower over-achievers who live around here, but those who toil in oppression all year under the cruel yoke of THE MAN. it so happens that the college where my wife teaches does not recognize labor day. indeed, the first day of classes is always on that date. on top of that, the saturday and sunday of labor day weekend is always freshman orientation, which means professors here have to do all kinds of work-related crap for the entire 3-day weekend. labor day weekend is the only time all year when i get to sleep in and goof around but my wife and neighbors have to work. it doesn't make up for the entire summer, those other breaks scattered throughout the year, or sabbaticals, but it sure does make me feel a little better right now.
