LABORING: LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2011

I'm laboring this Labor Day Weekend. I'd complain - particularly given glorious weather in Denver, Colorado this holiday weekend. I've been holed away in my basement sorting old papers to make way for my new books: "Laid -Back Skier: As In Skiing, So In Life."

Friday Jones Publishing expects the books delivered at the end of next week. As the book's author, creative director and publisher, I'll also serve as "Laid-Back Skier's" publicist.

Laboring as a writer, editor and art director involves paper. A lot of it. Even in the digital age, I keep on file thousands of photographs, back issues of magazines,

This sorting strikes deep chords of melancholy in me, attached as I am to personal correspondence, old calendars, ephemera of not only my lifetime, but also generations of my family. I'm sentimental.

And I just might qualify as a paper horder. I filled cardboard apple boxes with yellowed newspapers, dusty greeting cards, business cards. I happened upon a box belying a book I wanted to write when younger about the Los Angeles Lakers and their three-peat seasons. Now I know little or nothing about the NBA. At this age, I'm almost positive I will not get that book written, so with relief I heaved three year's worth of clippings from both The Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News.

Letting go of some of this old job stuff feels good.

I'm laboring in my gardens this Labor Day Weekend, too, but yard work feels more like play.

I like to think of myself as a hard worker. I'm from a line of hard workers, and my farmer and immigrant genes kick in when it comes to work.

Jobs I've held, a partial list: babysitter, lifeguard & swimming instructor, restaurant worker, parks & rec camp leader, fitness trainer, college writing teacher, bartender, clothing store sales clerk, framer's apprentice, journalist, Avon lady, Pepsi factory worker, calligrapher, staff writer, editor, public relations director, media relations officer, assistant communications director, freelance writer, publisher, author, columnist, novelist, book/music reviewer, reporter, dining reviewer, florist's assistant, greenhouse worker, and probably some I've forgotten.

I did not love all these jobs, but each of them taught me something and added to my current skill set.

This first weekend of September, this unofficial last weekend of summer, Happy Labor Day weekend whether you labor or laze.

Friday Jones Publishing will release Colleen Smith's new book LAID-BACK SKIER: AS IN SKIING, SO IN LIFE later this month. The book is a labor of love.