Pi Day

March 14, was International Pi Day. Get it? 3.14? (Pi is a number crucial to calculate the circumference and area of a circle. But it's kind of a 'magical' number because mathematicians have only been discovering it-- no one could have made it up. It's digits go on forever, never repeating or having any pattern! Can you believe it? I think it has spiritual significance-- in order to get from here to there, you need a bit of the Eternal and 'magical'. This applies to math, sin, grace and relationships....)

In highschool Bryan's math class made up songs about pi for Pi Day. (Such as "oh number pi, oh number pi, your digits are unending..." to the tune of O Tannenbaum.) And he still remembers them. I know, totally nerdy, huh? But that's why I love him. :-)

So I knew it was a big deal to him, and I got excited too, and we planned a party and I made two cakes in the shape of the pi symbol.

We were going up to Seattle anyway, so we went a bit early and got Hawaiian BBQ, the site of our first date (after Ikea), and we went to the waterfront, the site of another romantic memory from way before we were dating.

He had a Pi Album. I'm not kidding. He had done research on the internet and made this great album about Love and Math.

[I would like to mention, for those who don't know us well, at this point in our lives neither one of us are mathematicians- he's a campus minister! We just enjoy the odd math holiday, and the more offbeat, random things in general... like the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.]

Did you know people have written poems about pi? Here are some limericks for your enjoyment:

"A Pi Lymeric" - author unknown
There once was a number Pi
Very special like e and phi
Circumference to d
Is the ratio for me
And it's not a multiple of i.

"Pi Lymeric" - by Scott
Now there is an ancient Greek letter,
And I think no other is better.
It isn't too tall,
It might look very small,
But its digits, they go on forever.

And a more general math love poem... "Valentine" (author unknown)
You disintegrate my differential,
You dislocate my focus.
My pulse goes up like an exponential
whenever you cross my locus.
Without you, sets are null and void--
so won't you be my cardioid?

And after a great integral equation linking B sub J and J sub Z for eternity, there was a felt package with a beautiful ring inside! I was completely surprised.

The party we were going to was really an engagement party, and we were met with champagne and goodies and pictures of us from our freshman and sophomore years of college. It was great to see friends and have other people ooh and ah over my ring and over our happy news.