Multiple Tens

Jaymz likes elevens, so I captured
this moment on the odometer for him.

Today is 10/10/10 and it's 10:10AM PST! What are you doing right now? (Or what were you doing at 10:10 in your time zone?)

I am calling my sister, because we decided a while ago that when it's 10/10/10 or 11/11/11, etc. we would enjoy it for a moment on the phone together.

I like numbers. This is not to say that I enjoy mathematics, per se, but I do enjoy number puzzles and tricks. For instance, on long road trips I'm always keeping an eye out for special numbers on the odometer. Jaymz taught me once that to determine if a number is a multiple of 11 (his favorite number), you simply have to subtract and add the numbers in order. If the end result is any multiple of eleven (0, 11, or -11, say), then the original number is a multiple of 11. It goes like this: Say, your mileage is 74987. 7-4+9-8+7=11, so 74,987 is a multiple of 11! Sometimes I wish I had known some of these fun tricks when I was in high school...maybe I would've done better in class!

Last year's day like today

Here's another fun number (and word!) game, where any number can be turned into 4. How, do you ask? Give me a number, any number, say 121. "One hundred twenty-one" has 19 letters. "Nineteen" has 8 letters, "eight" has 5 letters, "five" has 4 letters, and "four" has 4 letters. ("Four" has 4 letters repeating.) Isn't that neat? Now you can go impress all your friends with your new trick.

I also like noticing repeating numbers and particularly palindromes (a word, phrase, or number that is read the same forward as it is backward) in my everyday life.  Jaymz and I make an effort when tipping at a restaurant to make the total into a palindrome ($23.32) or a sequential ($23.45) or repeating ($23.23) number sequence. Extra points if you can make the tip and the total into fun numbers! "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" is one of my favorite word palindromes (along with simply "Mom," of course). Weird Al Yankovic wrote a song consisting entirely of palindromes, which I think is pretty awesome:

(We even set the alarm for 9:09)

When there's a date like today, it reminds me that every moment is special, and you never get to have any one of them over again. It inspires me to be present and mindful. Plus, I just enjoy the novelty of something silly like a date that only requires you to write or say one number over and over.

Do you like to have fun with words or numbers like I do? Do you celebrate special-numbered days like this? Do you even notice? Do you think I'm a little crazy (or just a huge nerd) after reading this? I'm curious to know if you enjoy anything like this, too!