This is Victor Meldrew from the BBC comedy One Foot in the Grave.

I like this picture for a variety of reasons (this show even made my hubby start watching BritComs because it's so darn funny), but today, it's because I feel like I've had it "up to my ears" with work.

Today just did not want to end. While I sat at my desk, staring at the work I still needed to finish, I felt the tension in my neck and shoulders, the thrum of nervous energy waiting to be unleashed.

Three day weekend! kept running around and around in my head.

And yet that clock just kept moving slower and slower and s-l-o-w-e-r.

I left ten minutes early. Don't worry - I was done with everything I needed to do for the day. I just couldn't sit there another single minute. I felt trapped - just like Victor.

The American work ethic is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it helped build this nation into what it is today - full of faults, but still one of the best nations on earth (in my humble opinion). On the other hand, Americans do not know how to relax. We get precious little "down" time. And when we DO have the day off, we're so busy trying to play catch-up that we really don't have time to just sit and do nothing.

I work with a guy from Great Britain. When he tells his British friends back home that we only have a maximum of two weeks for vacation time per year, they gape in astonishment. They can't believe it.

And on days like today, neither can I.

I hereby officially announce a petition to make the work-week four days instead of five and three-day weekends every weekend.

Who's with me? :-)