not a N U M B E R S person

I'm not a numbers person- at all. Write a ten or twenty-page essay about nothing- no problem. I hated college algebra and withdrew after a frustrating month in the class. Luckily, statistics was the other quantitative skills option for my degree. I loved it and passed {even got an A}. I think Justin was a freshman when I could no longer help him with his math homework. This is why I now rely on both Justin and Ty for any equation problem I might have. Fortunately, they’re both math brains.

I decided to get a membership at the video store on base this week. The library is great, but as much as we watch movies now, I thought it might be nice to see some newer releases. I made it all the way through my one-page application until I got to the telephone number line. In Kansas, I asked the phone people for an easy phone number. Our house phone ended up being 524-4444. Now, that’s my kind of phone number. Here, I still don’t know our numbers.

As soon as we moved here, Jim made me a handy-dandy cheat sheet with all the information I needed to know and had not yet memorized. I probably had a moment of being overwhelmed with so much new information that I couldn’t keep straight. I’m sure I cried- it’s pretty humbling starting over especially in a new country. He tucked it in my wallet pocket and I think I’ve pulled it out daily for the last three months. It has our cell phone, addresses {I do know both of these now}, PO Box combo, his work unit {HQ USAFE/A4MQ}, his work number, his work number when calling from a real phone off base and now our home phone number. This is just too much to learn while my brain is already on overload most of the time.

Back to my application- I pulled out my reference sheet, filled in all the info and turned it in to the video-store lady. Without realizing it, I overlooked the box to put Jim’s work phone number in. Big mistake. She looked it over and said in her slightly condescending tone, “Do you not know his work number yet?” I about exploded. Looking her straight in the eye I said, “No, actually I don’t know ANY of my numbers yet.” I stopped there, not that I didn’t have a few other choice words to say back to her.

Phone numbers here are so complex to me. Our cell phone number is 01706046434- that is eleven digits. Our new home phone number is eleven digits as well. If you call from the US to Germany you dial 011 + 49 + City Code without the 0 + Number. I’m not even sure what the city code is- maybe the first two or three digits. Whatever it is, it’s too many numbers for me.

We’re still working to figure out our phone charges, but do know that calls from our home phone are about 27 cents each- that’s more than a payphone! It’s more than that if you call a cell phone- ridiculous when we’re paying a monthly charge just to have a phone number. In the US, I’ve called 844 forever for time and temperature. I just realized here they have it as well, but in the German language. The number is 0900-100-1191. Is anything easy over here?

Here's one of these crazy houses with the barn attached. They have cows which are in the open part. Looks to me like the front door of their house is right next to it. I like cows, but that's just a little too close for me!