I have been feeling VERY unbloggy lately . . . I think about writing and my mind just goes BLANK . . . I don't know if it is because I feel so frazzled and busy lately . . . or because I have run out of things to say . . . (HA!!! Like I would let THAT stop me!!) . . . or because I actually have too MUCH to say . . . and simply can't put it all in words . . .
School is going well. I mean, it is REALLY busy . . . even with just two classes. But I am weirdly beginning to actually enjoy the challenge of Math . . . I am definitely out of my comfort zone . . . but I am okay with that. I have a lot of areas of my life where I feel like I am competent and can do well . . . and Math is not one of them . . . but it is like something in me has relaxed, and I can let go of my death grip on my lifelong mathphobia . . . and just be content to explore this unfamiliar territory.
I worked into my schedule a three hour block twice a week to spend at the math lab on campus, and that is quickly becoming my new favorite place to hang out. There are always math aides on duty (and usually one professor, too) so there are people there who can help me work through things when I get stuck. I can't believe that I never used the math lab last Spring . . . it is SO helpful.
Yesterday, I hit a snag and worked and reworked the problem and finally decided it had to be an error in the textbook, and went on to the next problem. When I checked that answer, that one, too , was wrong . . . and so was the next. So I called a lab aide over and he read the word problem, and said 'oh you solve that like this . . .' and came up with the exact same answer I had. I showed him that, and then the answer in the back of the book, so he looked at the problem again . . . looked at his calculations . . . and then said . . . "well, sometimes the book makes mistakes" . . . so I showed him the next two problems, and the answers in the back of the book. I felt MUCH less stupid after watching him struggle with the same problems and not be able to get the book's answer, either (though I think HE felt stupid, then). He finally gave up and apologized profusely for not being able to help me. I finished that section (minus those three problems) and by then a different lab aide had come on, and so I called her over and she looked at them and worked them out (coming up with exactly the same answers I had) and when I showed HER the answers in the back, she spent twenty minutes trying to figure out what they had done to get those answers. She was stumped, too. Finally she wrote down the ISBN, the page number and problems number and promised she would look into it and get back to me. I couldn't, at that point, ask a professor, both because I was out of time and needed to get to my next class, and because the professor on duty was involved in a study group so I couldn't interrupt her.
I still don't have a clue how the book came up with the answers they did, but I felt a little better that the lab aides (who are VERY good) had been baffled by the problems, as well. I also took my first quiz in my Math class and ACED it . . . in fact, I was the first one done. Speed doesn't matter, but I know that I did well, and it WAS kind of fun to finish first. (Though it was a little unsettling . . . when I stood up to take my paper up to the teacher, I kept looking around trying to figure out why all the math brains around me were still working . . . I was SURE I had forgotten some problems on the back or SOMETHING . . .
So . . . yeah . . . Life has been
busy . . .
I guess that is as good an excuse as any for not blogging . . .
Or maybe I am still just kind of feeling my way through this 'blog' thing . . . and I am still not yet quite sure what I will be comfortable sharing here . . .
Time will tell . . . I suppose . . .
