No more ambiguity

Note: This may seem like a strange thing to blog about, but it kept me up for longer than it should have the other early morning. So, bear with me and my random PSA.

Sometimes, I get stressed out by things that shouldn't stress me out, but do anyway. One such thing is the way people count sometimes.

Counting is hard, don't get me wrong. Oh, sure, it's not that bad counting objects. But what about when you're counting months?

So, here is my trick.
First, assign each month a number. January = 1, February = 2, and so on. This should come naturally because it is how we write the date fairly often.

Next, transform your question into numbers. For example, if you are trying to figure out what 5 months after March is, turn March into 3. 3+5 = 8. 8 = August. Done.

What about 5 months after November? November = 11. 11 + 5 = 16. 16-12 = 4. 4 = April. Done. (Subtract 12 because there are 12 months in a year.)

And that is all. No more worrying about whether you count a month one way or another. Because it's pretty easy to double-count if you are trying to count out loud.

What about days in the month? When Kevin and I started dating, we had a long, long, long discussion about this. He said that on his mission in Mexico 7 days was considered a week, but 8 days later was also a week. I think it was because if you were counting the days on your hand, counting from Sunday to Sunday really would get you up to 8 days listed. Even though a week is just 7.

This was entirely unacceptable. This sort of ambiguity was part of life before the number 0 was discovered (it really did have to be discovered, and it was more recent than you might expect), but now that we have 0 there is no reason to round up to 1 when 0 works just fine. So 0 days from now is today, 1 day from now is tomorrow, not today, and so on.

So the trick here is again basic addition and subtraction. What is 11 days from now? Today is the 3rd. 3 + 11 = 14. May 14. Done. Doesn't matter what time of day it is. It is still 11 days away. Or, if you are being cute, it might be 10 1/2 days, but don't say that unless you have to.

Now, if you throw words like first or second or 15th in, that changes things because the nth of something lasts until n actually happens (e.g. you are in your 1st year until you actually turn 1). So I understand complication there. But if you are trying to figure out the answer to "When is the ninth month of a pregnancy that began in the middle of October?", do this:
October = 10.
10+ 9 = 19.
19 - 12 = 7 = July.
So the ninth month would end in the middle of July and thus begin in the middle of June.

I think that's everything that kept me awake. I don't even know if it makes sense written down like this. But if I ever end up finishing that math book a polished version of this will appear.

You're welcome.