Tuesday, September 05, 2006

I Didn't Die!

I felt yuck-o-la most of last week, but awoke on Monday to a much better feeling self. Now the crud is working it's way through the fam, but hopefully the kids will be spared the worst of it. Thanks for the kind comments, even while I let my blog reading go to pot.

College is making me feel old! In my REMEDIAL math class last week, we were discussing mean and median and I, being the accounting minded individual that I am, asked when we'd even really care about median. The teacher who, is obviously well versed in the meaning of REMEDIAL, offered the example of purchasing a house in a neighborhood with fairly consistant property values and one odd-ball, high property value. Gotcha. Then a bubble blowing, Gucci bag toting, flip-flop wearing little gal on the back row piped up, and this is what she said:

"As a woman, and as a shopper, median means a lot to me, so that I buy items that are reasonably priced and I don't overspend on like items."

OK. Whatever.

Two minutes later, we're handed a worksheet:

"Bob's electricity bills for January, February and March were $178, $295, and $150, what is Bob's average electricity bill for these three months."

Here's the conversation that went on in my head:

"As a responsible, bill paying adult, it would be a cold day in Pergatory before I gave one moment's thought to the median in this equation. In fact, it's been so long since I had the need to think of anything other than bill paying and budgeting, it's no wonder my poor little brain rejected the idea of using a median."

And it was then that I KNEW:

I am an official grownup.

I think like one. I look like one. I act like one, and best of all, I'm OK with being one. Perception is everything.

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