Calendar Quibbles

Dear hangovers,

Today is the first day of 2010. The 10s. One-one-ten. Doesn't quite have the ring of the 0-x's, as in twelve-thirty-one-oh-nine. Though it may be the first of the new year for most people around the world, it is not the first day of my year.

My 2010 calendar runs from January 3, 2010 to January 1, 2011. At this point, you might be thinking, 'wtf?' And I wouldn't hold it against you. Here's my explanation:

The monthly calendar is retarded. Some months have 30 days, others have 31, and February can't make up its mind and is 28 or sometimes 29. The year has 365 days, which is one day more than 364. When you divide 7 into 364, you get exactly 52. And 52 is divisible by 4 and 13. So why not have 13 months, and stick one month with the extra 1 or 2 days.

Better yet, why not just have 364 days in a year. Sure every 182 years you have an inversion in seasons (summer becomes winter and vice versa), but wouldn't that be cool? Daily planner and calendar manufacturers won't like the idea very much (as a single calendar would suffice every year), but Leap Year babies won't have to miss out on 3 birthdays every cycle.

Since the world won't change for me, even though it obviously revolves around me (my ego has a large gravitational field), I had to compromise for it. My calendar has 364 days in it and is divided into 13-week quarters. It makes sense to my budget as each quarter has 13 pay periods and 3 sets of bills (rent, electricity, etc).

The reason a monthly budget doesn't quite work is that some months will have 5 Fridays, which means some people would be inclined to splurge because of the false surplus.

I'm not in charge of running quarterly reports for any major business, but I'm guessing that's how they do it.