2nd Grade Math

When I was in early elementary school, I used to misspell numbers all the time. Like if the spelling was was nine, I would spell it 9ine. For real. I vividly remember doing this with the number 4our and 9ine in particular. Such a dork, even at age 7!

Does anyone else remember getting time and money confused? I would forget if there were 60 seconds per minute, or 60 cents per dollar. Or was it 100 minutes per hour or 100 cents per dollar? This concept confused me for a very long time. And appearanly, it still does.

I am 26 years old. I need to go back to 2nd grade and reveiw time and money concepts.
Just call me Billy Madison.

I had to mail a package today, which I almost always do from home, since the post office was most definitely designed by people who do not have small children. But, since we were out of stamps and I only needed $1.35 for the package, I headed to the post office. The line was rediculously long, so I used the oh-so-handy stamp atm machine. I got my stamps, and carefully started calculating how many 39 cent stamps I needed to get to $1.35. Let’s see…I’ll do some rounding…40 cents times 3 equals 120 cents…divided by 60 equals $2.00…3 stamps ought to cover it. Maybe I should do 4 just to make sure? No, 3 is plenty. That is nearly $2.00, and I only need $1.35. I slipped the package into the slot, rounded up the kids, and headed out.

I was 10 minutes down the road before it hit me.

There are 100 cents in each dollar, not 60.

I very thoughtfully applied $1.17 in postage. Nice. And there is no return address on the package since it’s supposed to be a surprise who it’s from. Merry Christmas (please pay postman 18 cents to recieve package of scrappy goodness…)

I feel like such a moron.

One of these days, I will be able to count without using my fingers, remember how many cents make up $1, and be able to tell which L looks correct when holding up my left and right hands.