Friends of Gabriel Chantayan

So I call Mutti tonight - first time in two weeks, I have been meaning to, the guilt was accumulating - and she asks, as she does every time, "Lukas, wann kommst du nach Hause für Weihnachten?" and I think: finally, I have the data. I have the flight cost curves, I have the probability of a layover in Frankfurt versus direct to München, I have the visa renewal window, I have the exact number of days between the end of my seminar grading period and the 24th of December. So I tell her. In detail. With contingency plans for weather delays. And she is silent for a moment and then she says "Ach, Lukas, I just wanted to know if you are coming." And I realize I have given her a spreadsheet when she wanted a sentence. The precision was honest but it was also, I think, a kind of avoidance - as long as I am calculating the logistics I do not have to feel the missing of home. Does anyone else do this? Turn a simple question into a methodology? I am asking for empirical self-diagnosis, not comfort, Bitte.

bro you gave your mom a PERT chart instead of a yes/no answer. i respect it

TwinPeaks_59 - "PERT chart" accurate. She said "I just wanted to know if you are coming" and I felt like ScribeOfTheGrid when someone asks for column K and he hands them a convergence formula instead. The answer was yes. The answer was always yes. The spreadsheet was the noise.