Changing the Year is Difficult

I write a lot of numbers at my job. In fact, pretty much everything I write is a number or my initials. I type, also. I type names, birth dates, times, the current date, and numerical codes. I like numbers a lot, so this is pretty fun for me. Also, my job is pretty boring (which is actually cool with me), so I entertain myself by thinking about the numbers I’m using.

Yesterday was the first day I’ve worked in 2013, so there was definitely a trick to work my fingers on the year. The fact that the month also changed actually made the year switch easier, since I had to start thinking at the beginning. The way I need to type the date was 010213 yesterday, and it had been 123112 on Monday, so it’s not like the year switch was the only difference.

I was entertained by how many handwritten dates had a funny squiggle for the year where “12″ had been written and then marked up trying to turn the “2″ to a “3″. I would have taken a picture, but the date is written on confidential patient information, which puts photos into the solidly bad idea category.

There have been some fun dates and other numbers recently that make me happier than you might expect. Obviously, typing 121212 was fun on December 12. Not long after that, typing 122112 gave me a little extra happiness at work.

We have a number to signify dates that we attach to other numbers (great descriptions, yes?). Each day gets a number. Um, it’s kinda hard to explain, but if you think for a minute, these examples should help: When I worked Monday, December 31, 2012, the day’s code was 2366. On Wednesday, January 2, 2013, the day’s code was 3002. Anyway, twenty-one days before the end of 2012, the code was 2345. It made me smile a little every time I got to write or type that number that day. In fact, I even rearranged my workflow a little so I got to type the number every time instead of doing a cut-and-paste with it. Don’t worry, it doesn’t slow down my overall work when I type instead of paste it, but it means that my papers have to be spread all over my desk and take up more space.

A couple of years ago, one of my coworkers (at a different job) commented that it was difficult to change the year on her checks. Most of us were surprised that she had written multiple checks in the first four days of the year.