Names and Faces

I have a great mind for faces. One time I was in Schnucks and I ran into a guy that I had gone to high school with back in Evanston. After figuring out where we had known each other from we had a nice conversation. At my high school reunion I recognized everyone there ("It was just as if everyone had swelled." - Grosse Pointe Blank). However, I did forget a good chunk of people's names. Boy, did that endear me to the crowd...

Flash forward to the past Saturday. A friend of mine had a destination wedding complete with post-wedding reception in St. Louis. My wife and I dropped Oliver off with Paul and Sarahlynn (where he turned out to be a plague bearer... errr.... sorry about that) so that we could go to the reception. While we were at the reception I ran into a woman that I had known at Wash U. We had been ... close ... during my freshman year, but then we drifted apart. I don't think I'd seen her more than a couple of times since we parted. She greeted me by name. And I completely blanked on her name.

So we had that awkward conversation that people who have been close have when they run into each other again. It seems that she knew the bride and I knew the groom. I marvelled at her abrupt career switch from doctoral focus to law degree. She gushed over how cute Oliver is (from the only pictures I keep with me - on my phone). And then we drifted off to different parts of the party.

It was really weird running into her again. It's like when you are at the grocery store and run into a coworker. You know them, just not in this setting or with this group of people. It was really embarassing for both of us that I could not remember her name. I think it made the ensuing conversation even more awkward.

So I'll add this to my published list of flaws (my wife keeps the unpublished ones) - I'm great with faces, terrible with names.