awesome at math

The other night I woke up in the middle of the night (kind of like in January...let's hope I don't have to resort to such drastic measures again!) and couldn't fall back asleep. After trying a few other tricks, I decided to try the ol' counting backwards trick to see if that would put me back to sleep. I mean, I've always found math to be dreadfully boring. And I'm pretty bad at it (see: counts on her fingers at age 30). So I decided to give myself a real challenge by upping the math-ante and counting backwards from 1,000 by eight. Does that even make sense? You know...subtracting 8 each time. Right.

Things started off pretty rough but surprisingly by the time I got to like 800 I'd figured out a PATTERN!!!! I felt like the guy in The Davinci Code or some other code-solver-mystery-thriller. I almost wanted to wake Matt up just to give him my insight about counting backwards by eights! But I didn't, because I'm really kind like that. But anyway. I just thought you should know. PS- it didn't help me to fall asleep. But at least it made me feel really smart.

In honor of that breakthrough moment, today I shall be presenting a backwards-counting list. But only by ones, because I can't assume that everyone is as awesome at math as I am, and I don't want you to hurt your brain on a Friday.

10- The approximate mile-marker of our bike ride last night when we realized we'd taken a wrong turn, really had no idea where we were or how to get home, and also the sun was setting. Cue slightly panicked riding. Luckily we found our bearings shortly thereafter and were home before mile 12.

9- The number of weeks until I will be in a delightful and perfect tropical haven, where the ocean is crystal-clear turquoise and the waiters bring beverages out to you on the beach. Not that I'm excited or anything.

8- The number of fried bananas (pieces, not whole bananas!) I ate when we met Matt's parents at a Chinese buffet for lunch yesterday (or a close guess. I didn't actually count). Yall. Someone stop me. I'm a disgrace to humanity.

7- The approximate number of attempts it took me to get this scarf to look right today. For some reason I think that summer scarves (oxymoron) need to be wrapped differently than winter scarves, and I can never get mine quite right.

Just pretend those aren't giant bags under my eyes. BE DAZZLED BY MY SCARF INSTEAD.

6- The number of years of marriage we'll be celebrating on Sunday! Happy 6th anniversary to us!!

5- The number of different farm animals we saw on our bike ride last night: Cows, baby cows (counted separately because they are substantially cuter than regular cows), chickens, horses, pigs.

4- The number of cantaloupes our really nice next-door neighbors randomly gave us yesterday. Apparently someone had given THEM 24 cantaloupes...so they were spreading the joy through the neighborhood!! Yum!!

3- The time that half-priced 'Refreshers' drinks at Starbucks start today! (3-5 p.m. through the weekend)...meaning, the time that my co-workers and I will be taking a field trip across downtown for some tasty treats!

2- The number of Fandango movie tickets I purchased using a Groupon yesterday (for a total of $12). And I also earned 2 Swagbucks per Groupon dollar spent. And I'll get 1% back in credit card rewards. That's a lot of degrees of separation and companies between me, my money, and going to a movie, but whatever! Somewhere in the math, I feel like I'm coming out on top.

1- The number of workdays left until WEEKEND! We have some fun adventures planned and I can't WAIT to get them started!