I hate math
I think I hate math
and yet I use it all the time
How many minutes before I have to get up?
How many hours did I sleep?
What time does Jenna have to be at the bus stop?
How long do I have to fix breakfast?
How many eggs should I use?
How much milk is left?
I address a letter to my granddaughter
and put it in the mailbox.
I have used a lot of numbers:
her house number
her street number
her zip code
my house number
my zip code
Jenna's first day of seventh grade
was yesterday
She had wanted to spend her last free day of summer
going to the Big City of Roseburg.
Roland brings me my phone
before we pull out of the driveway.
I had forgotten to return it to my bag.
There was a time when I had memorized
many phone numbers
all kind of different phone numbers
some with area codes
swimming in my head
I now have phone numbers on speed dial.
I now have very few
numbers memorized.
I drove passed the first onramp and
entered the second.
How many mile markers did we pass?
How many exits?
What is the speed limit?
How much sooner did those drivers passing me
arrive at their destination
before I arrived at mine?
I5 drivers are always in a hurry
because they mistime themselves
they don't look at their clocks
they don't like math
either
As long as we were in Roseburg
I made the trip to Lowes
to return an item that we
hadn't measured.
We hadn't done the math.
The cashier counts out the
amount of the item.
We spend too much time in the aisles
looking for a part that fits the measurements
I don't like to shop
probably even more than
I don't like math
We returned to the house
Jenna wanted to play a game
We played "Chatters Matters"
Her card asks how old her parents were
when they got married.
She attempts to subtract our ages
and the years.
The math was done incorrectly;
she started off by giving us
the wrong age
We use math to keep score,
to double or half a recipe,
measuring . . .
I don't think the creator of our house
used either math or logic
well,
not enough of it
anyway
Roland reminded me that we hadn't
paid for Jenna's lunch this year.
I can pay online, but there is a percentage
added to the amount that I spend.
That feels so wrong to me.
It would cost less in gas for me
to just take the payment directly
to the school.
I look at the calendar.
I notice an event coming up.
I wonder if I set my alarm
to remind me of said event.
How many more days?
I noticed the weather felt cooler yesterday than
it does right now.
I am check the temperature almost as much as
I check the clock.
What is up with all these numbers?
Why can't math just leave me alone?
None of us can escape it.
Numbers are a big part of
our lives.
Big numbers.
Fat numbers.
Numbers haunting me,
following me,
forcing me to use math often.
I don't even think about the many times
that I use math throughout the day.
Basic math.
Today is the deadline for posting
a discussion in which we are required to share
about five times that we used math this week.
I don't have to wait a whole week.
I use math more than 5 times a day!
Holy cow!
How could I hate something if I use it
all the time?
ALL THE TIME!
It's only Wednesday
and I have already been graded on my
assignments and my post.
Hallelujah!
That means I can spend the rest of this week
focusing on just my other class.
I wonder what the numbers will be
on November 8th this year.
kfralc
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