Not so easy for me, I guess

I got my census 2010 letter in the mail today. They said it's "Ten easy questions in ten minutes", so I decided to time myself.

Question 1 asks "How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?" Apart from the past/future tense issue, it's not a toughie, at least not until you start reading the directions.

"Do not count anyone living away either at college or in the Armed Forces."

Uh, OK. How does that apply to me? I'm in the military, so does that mean I shouldn't list myself? Or did I mess up the "order of operations" there?

Math has an order of operations. It's real clear. It's how you figure 3 x 5 +3 = 18, not 24. If you want 24, you have to write it as 3 x (5+3). Gotta get that grouping in there.

So it got me thinking, do they mean "living away at (college or in the Armed Forces)" or "(living away at college) or (in the Armed Forces)"? If it's the first way, I should count myself, because I'm not away. If it's the second, however, I don't count myself. I'm in the Armed Forces.

Turns out it was tougher than I thought, so I skipped that one and went on to the next.

(2.) "Were there any additional people staying here April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1?"

Huh?

You mean, like, additional people "staying here" that didn't qualify as "staying" in the first question?

I thought, well maybe that's me, since I'm not supposed to have listed myself in Q1. But none of the choices matched. I'm not Children, Non-relatives, or People Staying Temporarily. I could be a Relative, but I don't fit any of the examples they give (adult child, cousins, or in-laws).

In any case, I just counted myself as a Texas resident and listed "no additional people" for Q2.

Having spent a good five minutes on the first two, I started getting a little nervous about the rest, but it turned out they really were pretty easy. Fortunately, my age, name, gender, and race are pretty simple.

Still, I ended up clocking in a little over ten minutes.

:-(