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.

He's promised me if they won't change his seat when he gets to the airport, he will refuse to fly and come right home. I just hope he will actually do so.

Eek. I hope it goes OK, either way.

I got a migraine Sunday night, and I think I managed to get rid of it today by going to the chiropractor. I really need to remember this next time I get a multi-day migraine.

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).

What Nora said so well. I'm so sorry that you have to go through this. May it be history soon.

Yay chiropractor! Love when things work.

Both of y'all, along with tens of thousands of other people, made reasonable decisions based on the information you had. The only thing you should beat yourselves up for is your failure to build a time machine.

When I was in high school, a teacher told us there's two types of math students--those who memorize everything and those who develop a real understanding of what's being taught. He said as math classes get more difficult in college, there's a point where the "memorize everything" technique just stops working and those students who use it can advance no further.