Sara and Melissa Talk About...What We Did for Labor Day Weekend

We've been running a column series to get more personal with our readers. We are currently in our fifth year!

This month, we are talking about what we did (or didn't do) for Labor Day weekend. 

We're always open to topic suggestions, so please don't hesitate to share those in the comments. We'd also love to know if you can relate to anything we've said or hear your own thoughts on the topic. So don't be shy. :) We look forward to getting to know you as much as we're letting you get to know us. You can find our previous columns here, in case you missed them. 

Sara Steven:

I had big plans for Labor Day. Well, bigger plans than usual. The Sunday before, the goal was to work like I normally do on Sundays, later driving to a friend’s house for a much-needed girl’s sleepover at her house, and then on Labor Day, I had made arrangements with another friend of mine to partake in a morning yoga class. The sleepover friend was also going to hang out at my house later that afternoon, in an effort to get some pool time in before she started her new job the next day. (Okay, after reading through my original plans for that Labor Day weekend, I’m realizing it was actually a lot I’d initially planned.) 

But I was all for it. Until I got sick.

Sick might be kind of an overstatement. I’m still not sure how it happened, but it started earlier in the week with some kind of weird eye pain that felt like I had a foreign object stuck in my right eyeball. My eye was itchy but in pain at the same time, with a headache that lasted days. By Saturday I ended up with a migraine, so I had to cancel plans with everyone because I wasn’t up for a sleepover, yoga, or any pool time, which I felt pretty bad about, all things considered. My doctor suspected some sort of allergen had infiltrated my body, and things did get better over the week, but it was gradual. I half-joked that my body had to absorb whatever it was that landed in my eye, and I’m not convinced that didn’t happen.

At some point that week, and due to promised Labor Day deals, I ended up purchasing a new mattress–something I haven’t done in twenty years! I’ve read somewhere that we should be replacing mattresses every 7-10 years, but I obviously didn’t get that memo. I call myself “The Princess and the Pea” because I’m such a delicate sleeper. Everything has to be just so, and that includes the mattress I sleep on. Why change something that isn’t broken, until it actually becomes broken–my old sad mattress really had seen some better days since circa 2004, when I first bought the thing at the largest furniture store I’ve ever been to, Nebraska Furniture Mart–those who live in the Midwest know what I’m talking about. In fact, the brand of my old mattress is a Berkshire Hathaway; Warren Buffet knows mattresses, apparently.

I felt certain I’d found the perfect replacement for Old Faithful, until I brought it home and was bombarded by all the new mattress smells that come with owning a new mattress. Every morning I woke up feeling like I was coming down with something. My oldest son, who’d spent the day with his ex on Labor Day, made us aware of the fact that she became severely ill and later let him know she had Covid–and of course, he ended up with it, too. So I figured I was also coming down with Covid, only the feeling of not quite getting full-on sick but feeling sick never left me. It’s been a couple of weeks now and I feel like it’s getting better, but I’m fairly certain my new mattress is to blame. The various noxious odors that come from it are very chemical-like and after Googling “can your new mattress make you feel sick,” I discovered that new mattresses should be off gassed before use. That was all new to me. I don’t remember if I did that with my Berk mattress or any other mattress before it, but maybe the way mattresses are made have changed in the last two decades. 

My eye is better now. I no longer feel like I’m coming down with something, and my son is over Covid. No one else in my house got sick. Labor Day is meant to be an annual celebration of social and economic achievements for workers. A day to relax. But I feel like my Labor Day this year was more laborious than anything! Maybe it will go better next year. But in the meantime, here’s a photo of my son’s blue-tongued skink Peter Skinkledge in a hot dog costume, in celebration of the Labor Day pastime of grilling out, relaxing, and spending a nice, joyous day with family and/or friends.

Melissa Amster:

Labor Day this year was pretty much low key overall. We took the kids to the state fair for a couple hours to get out of the house and do something different. Otherwise, we just watched movies and did errands. My car also stopped working, so that was not fun. (Thankfully it got fixed the next day.) We did see a fun and entertaining movie called Jackpot though. Anyway, I've decided to write about Labor Day weekend from 2023 instead, since that was much more interesting.

Last year, my family and I went to Pittsburgh over Labor Day weekend. One of my close friends moved there a couple years ago, so part of the trip was to spend time with him and the other part was for being tourists. Of course, we stopped at Sheetz on the way. ;) 

When we got to Pittsburgh, we went right to the Heinz Museum. It's a tall building with lots of different exhibits on every floor showing the history and industry of Pittsburgh. Some of it felt like standard museum stuff, but I really enjoyed the Heinz room (all about their products) and the Mr. Rogers display. 

After the museum, we picked up some groceries and then stopped by my friend's new house. Then we went to the house we rented on Vrbo and got settled in and started working on dinner. My friend came over to join us. The house was really nice, but it was very hilly to get over there. The street leading up to the house was on a steep incline, as well. 

When we finished dinner, we went on a long walk to this area that overlooks the city and has a nice scenic view of the city.

With my friend

The next day, we did a little more exploring, including taking this trolley up a huge incline to look at the city during the daytime. Then we went to Randyland. That's like nothing else I've ever seen. A very kitschy and eclectic outdoor art display with old toys and other random objects.

Then we visited the Mr. Rogers statue before getting lunch and heading home.

While it was a quick visit, we had a nice time and it would be fun to go back when we have more time available to do some exploring. 

We didn't have time to do much at the aviary, so we will try it next time.

Did you do anything memorable over Labor Day weekend? 

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