"Rude that I don't get to declare a Mountain Day in my post-college life..."

[hermionesviolin]

^^ Thing I said on social media a couple places this morning.

The Smith College webpage was not actually very explanatory, so Thom Googled.

I explained, noting, "I mean, no one is surprised that I mostly just caught up on homework when I was at Smith... But as a graduate, I am definitely here for a beautiful day off."

Thom said:

If I’m ever in a position to set work policies somewhere, we’re going to do Mountain Day.

It’s such a great idea. Just “surprise! it’s beautiful! stop what you’re doing and go enjoy it."

❤️🍁🍂🍎🌳🌄⛰️

(A friend commented: "This seems lovely! Everyone should be able to have one day a year that they can take off just to enjoy the day without repercussions. Wouldn't that be nice?")

I knew Mt. Holyoke (the other historically women's college in the Consortium with Smith) did its own Mountain Day, but it was only because Thom sent me the Wiki that I learned that Williams does, too. In addition to 2 other New England but not Western Mass. colleges. (And a friend told me that a college in New York state does, as well. brb, editing the Wikipedia page 😂)

*Strikethrough because Pennsylvania is definitely not New England. 😂😭😂 (The other college is in New Hampshire, and my brain apparently really wanted New England to be a thing.)

Did I spend a chunk of today researching stuff about Mountain Day? Yup. (I did in fact do work things, also.)

Running a search in my email got me a set of lolsmithies posts from 2011, including "What part of my panromantic demi-sexual polyamorous non-binary identity don't you understand?" Which led to this conversation:

me:

Love, you're such a Smithie 😘

Thom:

I mean, I have some regrets, okay?

me:

I mean, Smith has really struggled around admitting trans women, so it's not like it actually would have been an option for you.

Thom:

I assumed, from a meme on that Tumblr.

me:

God, Calliope Wong was 2013? 😭

From 2015:
> Yesterday, Smith College announced that its admissions policy is now explicitly inclusive of “self identified trans women.” While there are language issues I have with Smith’s current policy–for example, not explicitly addressing nonbinary trans inclusion–I am happy; I am so tired, but happy.

(To be clear, my partner does not currently identify as a trans woman, but it's definitely a recurrent Thing.)