My brain is constantly being an ass of a gatekeeper for minutiae - "The admin password for your router? Pfft. You won't need that. But here's the formula for Boyle's Law."
At a recent convention with some of Andrea's colleagues, she pulled me over to a small group with whom she'd been working closely. She went around the circle of people and introduced me, and I greeted each of them by name. I then reached for my drink and discovered as I turned back around, "poof", every single name was forgotten.
Later that evening I had Andrea quiz me. "The second guy to the right was Danny?"
"Daryl."
"Next to him was Kelly?"
"Kerry."
"Dammit!"
Tomorrow I'm heading over to an old boss of mine's annual fall barbecue cook-off. Andrea and I attended last year and he introduced me to his wife, Lucille. See what I did there? I'd never met her before, and I haven't seen her since. But I remembered her name. Maybe it's because she shares it with BB King's famous guitar.
In sixth grade for Mississippi History, Mrs. Dunlap warned us we'd soon be tested on the names of the state's counties. Being a studious geek, I memorized all of them. One day shortly thereafter, "Class, clear your desks, take a sheet of paper, and list 20 counties." There are 82 in the Magnolia State, and I was able to scribble down 81 of them. To this day, apart from the three coastal ones where I grew up, one of the few other Mississippi counties I remember is the one I missed - Neshoba.
I couldn't tell you Mom's cell phone number if my life depended on it. I just know it's "Mom" in my contacts list. When Andrea picked up some gear at the REI mothership store in Seattle, the cashier asked for my membership card, which I didn't have on me. "No problem, what's the phone number associated with it?" I was able to rattle off a phone number Andrea and I hadn't had in over 10 years.
Here's the takeaway. If you're being introduced to me for the first time, do us both a favor and repeat it again a few minutes later. Your name is competing for preeminence against paramount factoids such as 302 cubic inches is equivalent to 5 liters.
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