Thursday Thirteen

I was an English major in college. I bypassed math as much as I could. However, I got all the way though Trig in high school, complete with "As" on the report card. Today I remember none of it.

Still, I have to play with numbers:

1) I count to 10 a lot. Every morning, in fact, when I lift weights, do sit ups, and other exercises that require increments of 10.

2) I stare at the odometer on the exercise bike or treadmill, anxiously willing the numbers to increase exponentially. (They never do.)

3) I balance the checkbook.

4) I have to figure percentages a lot in my articles. This is something I always sweat over and I always make my editor double-check my figures.

5) I am never without my watch, and of course it takes numbers on the clock face to tell time.

6) I also always like to know what date it is.

7) I use numbers every Thursday when I do a Thursday Thirteen!

8) I need to see the sizes in clothes before I buy them.

9) Totaling up the groceries in my head as I put items in the cart and then seeing how close I am with the total bill is a game I play when I shop.

10) Blogger keeps track of the number of blog entries you have!

11) Without numbers, I doubt there'd be an Internet, but I am rather clueless about how all that works.

12) I use measurements every morning when I make my Chinese medicine (which is an herbal tea), and then set a timer to count it down so that it steeps properly.

13) Janet Evanovich uses numbers in her detective series, and the 13th book just came out ...