“I’m sorry. He’s not available. Most people are out of the office day because of the hol-i-day.” The receptionist said this last word slowly and very distinctly as if she were talking to a small child, or someone with a ve-ry low IQ.

“Holiday?” I was confused. “What holi…oh..wait…is today Saturday?” We’ve been in such a sort of time and space warp for so long now, rarely sure of what season or month we’re in, let alone day of the week, that I figured I just hadn’t realized it wasn’t Friday but Saturday.

“No,” she said, again very di-stinct-ly, “Memorial Day.”

“I thought Memorial Day was on Monday,” I said to Annette after I extracted myself from the chat with the helpful secretary. “When did it become a four day weekend? You don’t even get that at Easter, do you?”

This was just another reminder that we might be in the US but we’re not yet in sync with it.