Working The Holiday

I heard from a friend who felt bad that I had to come back from the weekend early so that I could work tomorrow. As far as I'm concerned, I beat the summer holiday weekend traffic, and I'm grateful to be working, holiday or not.
 
A hundred years ago (well, not a hundred, just a long time ago), when I was first working at OLTL, there was talk that the Friday after Thanksgiving would be a work day. So I very quickly went from being a college student heading home for the holiday weekend to a working person whose family came to me, cooking turkey and the fixings in my third floor walk-up apartment. Years later, I carried scripts and schedules with me when I had work to accomplish over the Christmas hiatus. These were just things I did--if the job required it, it was just what I did.
 
All these years later, you might imagine I've been working long enough to say "no." Perhaps I have. And yet, I've also been out of work for long enough stretches that I'd rather say "yes." I remember all the holiday weekends when I nearly went crazy when I realized that no one would be reading my brilliant cover letters on a holiday. Realized that what felt like "dead time" for me was actually "easy living time" for other people. Realized that all I could do was immerse myself in the holiday (just without spending any money!), since I was powerless to change what would happen after the holiday.
 
So, yes, I am cutting the holiday weekend short to work tomorrow. And when I show up at work, I'll be very grateful that I did.