Mary + Her Mental Health

Paka, my sister Amanda, is living in Portland now with her hubby and two dogs. But before she left, we chatted all the time like we did here. I'm suffering huge withdrawals.

Paka and I are pakas to one another thanks to one of our flick faves, Whale Rider.("Paka!! I'm beck!!!") Please indulge me as I share another exchange one day where paka and I were hopelessly lost in the abyss that is mathematics, but soon pacified ourselves with some lively songs. Sort of. I dedicate this post to Paka, whom I miss. Come beck, Paka. Please come beck to me.

Amanda: okay mary...I'm looking like a mathmatical idiot here
me: welcome! join me!
Amanda: I'm trying to find out some percentages for Tom and I can't figure it out!
me: oh that's stressful can i help?
Amanda: maybe... I have two prices...cost and retail price
me: okahy
Amanda: and the percentage between them is what our cut is
me: right
Amanda: so I'm taking 21, dividing it by 29 and it gives me a decimal
me: move the decimal point two places to the right
Amanda: and when I click the % sign on the computer calculator, it's not right
me: if you move the decimal point, that is your percentage 72%. 100 minus 72 is your cut.
Amanda: but see, I have this other sheet that I already did and I can't remember how I did it and for some reason that percentage is 27.5
me: that's fine
Amanda: and I can't figure out how I came up with that number
me: you're fine
Amanda: and I have our cut as being $8 and I don't know how I figured out what the dollar amount was
me: 100 minus 72 is 28. listen…
Amanda: okay, I told you I was retarded
me: no no it's okay. you did it right. you have a markup of 27.5 %. i was rounding up to 28, but whatever. does that make sense?
Amanda: yeah. Okay. seriously, I was panicking
me: math does that
Amanda: thanks paka!! I'm a retarded paka!!
me: nooooo, not retarded. don't speak the math, that's all
Amanda: you can say that again
me: don't speak the math....oh wait you didn't mean literally. paka! it's 5:05! and it's storming outside! I gotta go home, paka!
Amanda: waaait, one more math question do you know how I would figure out the dollar amount?
me: for?
Amanda: if the price was 29 and the percentage was 22.4%
me: and you want to know what cost is? or retail?
Amanda: retail...I just wanna know what 22.4% of $29 is
me: okay hang on
Amanda: I got uht!! nevermind
me: good! yaya!
Amanda: yayaya!! thanks for all your help. You're my hero paka
me: oh paka, i just instill confidence in you and you do it all my yourself. ha! Freudian. all "my" yourself.
Amanda: you are the paka beneath my paka
me: did you ever know that you're my paka?
Amanda: and everything this paka would like to be
me: i can fly higher than a paka
Amanda: I can paka higher than a paka
me: oops, right. Thanks for the correction. next paka song...i wear my sun-paka at night
Amanda: I still think “Paka can you hear me?” was the best
me: paka can you help me not be frightened?
Amanda: hahaha!! the best thing is I can hear you singing it
me: i totally actually am! i'll sing it for your graduation this weekend. that'll be your graduation gift, paka