It was a nice, relaxing three-day weekend for me. The girls spent the weekend at their dad’s house, I spent the weekend catching up on errands, enjoying a marathon of The Office, and running, running, running. All thanks to Presidents’ Day. You know – that federal holiday we enjoyed yesterday? Yeah, well, apparently “federal” holidays no long mean banks, post offices, schools and everything is closed.
fed·er·al
/ˈfɛd
ər
adjective
1.
pertaining to or of the nature of a union of states under a central government distinct from the individual governments of the separate states, as in federal government; federal system
hol·i·day
/ˈhɒl
noun
1.
a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
Okay, so we’re all on the same page right? Generally speaking, a day everyone (or almost everyone) gets off. Yes? Yes.
So, cue Sunday night when the Ex texted me to ask if the girls have school tomorrow. (Better safe than sorry.) ”No,” I immediately answered. “It’s a federal holiday.” Then, because having to state the obvious always makes me nervous, I checked the school calendar online. There, right on February 18th, it showed “President’s Day.” There – I had worried myself for nothing.
On I go with my relaxing weekend, la di da, when, Monday afternoon, Gracie’s teacher texts me. “Where’s Gracie?” she wanted to know. “Um…at her dad’s?” I answered. For all I knew, Ms. G. was working in her classroom and wanted to borrow some child labor. Orrr maybe she was texting because there was school after all and since Gracie hadn’t missed a single day this year, she was worried.
Whoops.
The day was more than half over, the Ex doesn’t have school uniforms at his house, and Gracie’s teacher said nothing big was going on anyway. And she said more than a few kids at the school were absent, so it wasn’t like we were the only ones who made the same mistake. I just bet those parents had checked that same confusing school calendar. Turns out “Presidents’ Day” doesn’t mean the school is closed in observation of the FEDERAL HOLIDAY. Go figure.
Tags: federal holdays, holidays, Presidents' Day, school
February 19, 2013 at 12:17 pm |
Ooops! That is a bad calendar if you can’t tell if there is school or not.
February 19, 2013 at 3:58 pm |
I hear ya. Private colleges do not observe federal holidays. My first semester one of my prof said oh and enjoy the long weekend. So I dint show up for any of my classes -_-. Aaaand because were also NOT a religious private school we don’t get any religious holidays off like you did.
February 19, 2013 at 4:04 pm |
Also I agree with kathy! What kind of school calender cant tell you when there’s school or not. Even our shitpit of an edu dept. Back home managed a highlighting system for a black and.white. print out!
February 22, 2013 at 8:04 am |
Wow! That is so weird!