Boil some curtains and tear some water into strips, I am going into labor!

September 3, 2012

Happy Labor Day y'all.  It is raining, everyone in my house is sleeping, and I am up by 7am.  I find it difficult to celebrate Labor Day by sleeping or sitting around.  I have decided to celebrate the true meaning of the day by going into labor.

"Will someone give me a shot of something!"

"This is your fault!  You did this to me!"

Obviously, I have never been in labor and get all my references from movies or comedians.  My lines above do not reflect Beth In Labor.  15+ years ago, she was a real trouper and did not utter either of those sentences.  I would not do well giving birth since I have to ice my knee after taking a bike ride.  Labor pain may be somewhat more significant and they do not make ice bags with wings.

Enough about that.  I decided yesterday that I was going to write a post dedicated to my ex-coworkers and include a link from the sermon yesterday at church.  We are in a current series called "How to Like Your Job".  It has been excellent so far and they would truly get something out of it.  However, I will not do that in this post as I was going to email them the post and the whole labor joke at the beginning would ruin my good faith credibility.

Therefore, we can discuss how Labor Day came to be.  My family and I raised this question yesterday and I will take credit for being the one closest to the correct answer.  While there is some debate around who gets credit for the idea, it was started by a man or men involved in the labor movement.  He is a summary of their purpose:

"It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."

Since this is not an actual English paper, I will not cite my reference. 

Wait, what if this gets published? 

Okay, I got that line from a United states Department of Labor web page answering the question, The History of Labor Day.  Yes, I know that is not a question, what's your point?

The tribute started in 1882 in New York City and was originally going to always be on September 5th.  However, in 1884, they decided they wanted a 3 day weekend so they could attend a fireworks show or watch NASCAR, and the rest is history.

I should have been a teacher, no?

Here is a final thought around labor.  The elections are coming, in case you had not heard, and there is much talk about whether the economy and the jobless rate are better or worse due to 4 years of an Obama regime.  I will submit for you my first political opinion on this blog.

We were at the mall last night taking a walk.  We like to do this around closing time so that Beth can grab a Starbucks before they close and then we can walk the mall as it thins out.  This also gives us the chance to relive the memory of taking toddler CJ to the mall either before it opened or after it cosed so he could walk around and wear his self out.  It is a good tip for those of you with small children and malls.  Hotels like Embassy Suites work well too since the hallways aren't one way traffic.  Anyway, when we would walk the mall with baby CJ before it opened, he would walk up to all the stores he knew had train sets only to find them closed.  He would then, very dramatically, hold out his arms and declare, "All the stores are closed!" 

That was not my political opinion.  I have decided that perhaps the economy is not as bad as the Romney people want me to believe.  My source for this is the restaurants at the mall.  There are two and they were both PACKED last night.  We were not going to eat there, but we stopped in The Cheesecake Factory to pick up a carryout dessert.  30 minutes later we had it and were on our way home.  The place was stuffed with patrons and the crowd waiting outside was substantial.  The same scene was repeated at The Red Lobster we passed on the way home. 

If everyone is out of work, how can they all afford to go out to eat? 

Since it is very likely that this blog will get picked up for an Obama commercial, perhaps I better go back and check my resources.