Ugh Scrappy, hope they can accommodate him. It seems like a very reasonable request.

And double ugh, Maria. This too shall pass, but ugh!

Scrappy, it's a known risk of flying, surely they will understand and switch his seat with someone else's. And if not, may he keep his word and come home!

Maria, so sorry you have to deal with all that.

ugh, Maria. I sympathize a lot.

I just want it over with. I can't keep paying, and I don't want to be a landlord. I should have done this a few months ago, but I couldn't. And I'm deathly afraid that Bank of America is going to say no.

Scrappy, safe flying~ma for your DH.

Maria, I'm sorry.

TCG went to a local poetry event tonight. I didn't feel like going.

Ugh, Maria.

I am so glad that I can sleep in tomorrow. I've been exhausted the last few days.

Also, as usual when I get to this section of calculus, I totally freaked out my students today by saying, "There isn't any rule or set of steps to follow here. You just have to look at each individual problem and figure out what's happening." They don't believe me. They think that, since this is math, there must be a rule to follow, and that I'm just not telling it to them as some kind of educational thing. Many of them seem convinced that they don't need to learn what's involved in the "figure out what's happening" part, because they're sure that I'm going to tell them the rule in the next class, and then they'll have wasted their time on all that thinking.

They think that, since this is math, there must be a rule to follow

Isn't that the point of math? That there are rules? I ask in all seriousness, because I nearly failed logic by proving the exact opposite of what the question wanted on a test, and I had a proof for every step of the way. I never did figure out why my answer was wrong, the professor actually said, in frustration, "Because that's what the answer is!" This is why I like geometry. It has rules.

I just want it over with. I can't keep paying, and I don't want to be a landlord. I should have done this a few months ago, but I couldn't. And I'm deathly afraid that Bank of America is going to say no.

I'm sorry. At least you bought your house first. I think we may never be allowed to buy another house. But, it still fucking FUCKING sucks. I'm really sorry. I have to stop or my rage will return. But I am really sorry. It's so stressful and humiliating. And I just felt so fucking stupid. But we're not stupid. It's OK. We're still people who have love in our lives and that's the most important thing (my mantra for several years of house owning awfulness).

Isn't that the point of math? That there are rules?

There are rules about how numbers work, but they're looking for rules like "If you're given this type of problem, then follow these steps, and you'll get the answer." And that works for arithmetic, but when doing optimization problems (like the ones here: [link] ) there's no set of rules where you can read through every one of those problems, pick out the numbers, and plug them into some algorithm. You have to actually look at each problem, draw a picture, look at the picture you've drawn, figure out what the problem is asking for, and figure out how to find it.

. . . story problems . . .

That would be a great Halloween costume, a placard reading "A car leaves City 1 at 2 PM going 40 mph" etc.