Tuesday, October 04, 2005

call me clark

i was walking off the shuttle with this guy who works on a different floor. i have met this guy on at least five occasions, the first of which was a meetandgreet at a conference where i talked to him for about fifteen minutes about his job and myself. today, after a few comments about the weather, he turns to me, sticks out his hand and says, 'i'm chris, by the way.'

i shook it and told him my name and where i worked. but it felt so fake because i've formally met this guy so many times already and he comes by and talks to the guy i sit by on occasion, too. however, i'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, because a) you meet a lot of people at conferences, b) he might want to play it safe and not come off like he equates all little brown girls as being the same and c) i was wearing my glasses that day, so maybe i looked like a totally different person.

yeah, so i'm going to go with the glasses thing.

okay, okay. it's not just to give him the benefit of the doubt, it's because i secretly believe i have superpowers.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

im sorry- that is NOT normal- there is something wrong with his head

Mike said...

Whoa, I totally had deja vu reading this. Strange...

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

A woman, Mrs. Snob, does that to my neighbour a lot, Mrs. Snob is always pretending they've never met.

Until one day, someone said to my neighbour and Mrs. Snob, "You know each other, don't you?"

And my neighbour said, "Oh no, we've never met."

I agree with Ale.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Or maybe he wants to get to know you...? :-)

DCveR said...

Playing devil's lawyer here like lou, but he can simply have a problem with faces or simply be very forgetful. I’ve had people who were my colleagues at college, people who were my students and others I don’t really know where I met coming up to me calling my name. I could pass them a hundred times without greeting simply because although they somehow looked familiar I didn’t really remember them.
All this said, he can also be a jerk or a snob or both.

lucasjackson7 said...

i think it's the cordial thing to do to introduce yourself. even if you've already met. it can be a simple gesture to break the ice.

heck, i do it all the time, even to people i've known for years, just for laughs.

Btw, superpowers could come in handy if i'm ever left to deciding my Amazing Race partner. i think i'd have an open spot on my team if you could fly...or...perhaps recall an old calendar memory skill for days of the month....hell, i'd put you on the team if you could decipher half of these "word verifications" i have to pass to comment.

cadiz12 said...

i don't know guys, i passed him in the hall again today and he gave me the i-don't-know-you-but-i'm-a-nice-guy-so-i'll-smile smile.

whatever. i just dont' get the whole pretending not to know you thing. seems wacky. and not in a fun way. eh, but maybe he does have a problem.

and coincidentally, lucasj, my superpowers have been specifically honed for amazing race purposes. my philosophy has always been, hell, if flo can do it, i sure as hell can.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

He sounds a tad odd, that one. Treat him like the stranger he is, distant, polite.

Lia said...

The guy has daily amnesia, but he's really awesome at his job, so they keep him anyway, even though they have to introduce themselves anew each day.

A said...

I do that sometimes but then again I get the feeling that I might have amnesia...

Where have you been?

omar said...

I occasionally forget names too, but I'll just say "I'm sorry, I'm horrible with names..." Pretending like you've never met is weird.

Unless he really doesn't remember. He might be like that guy in Memento.

Chris said...

I do this all the time. I'm not "horrible" with names, I'm a complete idiot with names. They don't stick at all--faces fade somewhat quickly, too. (I'm thinking early Alzheimers...)

You're one of those people that "remember stuff" aren't you? I forget everything... I'll forget I wrote this in three days.

Unless it's porn, porn-related or has something to do with something on television--then it's locked in my brain like money in a vault.

Spill something on him during your next "meeting"... he'll remember you. Not in a positive way, but none-the-less you will be remembered.

omar said...

Clark, where are you? We're going to have to rename this site "shucknjuggle" pretty soon.