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Leiden

Now, with Facebook.. it’s even worse! I have a bunch of friends on there that I’ve worked with in the past or gone to school with. If I run into one of them at the grocery store or the coffee shop, it gets a little awkward. I look at them and I feel obligated to say *something* to them because we’re “friends” online after all. But, unless their name is floating under their face as it does on Facebook, I generally struggle to match the name to the face. So, I have to keep it real quick and casual as if I’ve got to be over in the freezer aisle in 2 seconds.

I’ve got another awkward name-forgetting story: I was out with a friend at a local bar and I saw this girl who I knew I went to highschool with but couldn’t remember her name. She looked great, and she remembered me and we began talking and I was hoping for something in the conversation would tip me off as to her name. Eventually, the conversation got well beyond the point where I could ask her her name. I’d be exposed for pretending I knew who I was talking to this whole time. So, I thought up and ingenious plan. I’d introduce my friend to *her* but not introduce her to my friend. That way he would have to say “nice to meet you, what’s your name?” and I could just be apologetic and say “oh, I’m sorry, yes this is so and so”. This move should be page one of the wingman handbook by the way.

However, I didn’t have time to brief my friend on my plan. I just said, “Oh! This is my friend Steve” and I stepped back and waited for my plan to unfold. “Pure genius,” I thought. Things immediately derailed when he said “nice to meet you” and then turned and glared at me like “aren’t you going to introduce her?!?”.. at which point, I was busted. I had to fess up that I didn’t remember her name. She immediately turned cold and didn’t talk to me the rest of the night. Turns out, once my friend heard her name, he remembered he had met her once before. Argh.