I’ve always been bad about learning people’s names, but lately it seems I’m getting worse. Major case in point: my new band. They all know each other so well and we practice in such a small room that it’s seldom that anyone ever addresses anyone else by name. Therefore, it took me weeks to finally be certain of which name went with which guy – and there are only three of them!
My husband is worse than I am. He’ll run into musicians he’s played with and have no idea who they are. Then he doesn’t introduce me, which I think seems rude. I keep telling him he should say, "…and this is my wife."
Then I can say, "Hi, I’m Jane," prompting the person to say, "Hi Jane, I’m Whatever-my-name-is." Then we’d all know!
My mom was also bad with names, but she’d just greet everyone whose name she didn’t know with, "Hey babe, how are you?"
I don’t think I could pull that off. In fact, I fear it’s staggeringly obvious when I don’t know someone’s name. Years ago, after I’d already met Cagey on several occasions, she came to my house to play Bunko and I completely blanked on her name right in front of her. Luckily, she’s a forgiving sort.
I consider it a major triumph that I’ve managed to quickly learn the names of all of my newer co-workers. Of course, it’s a small company so that helps a lot. Come to think of it, now that we have a creative director whose name starts with the same letter as mine, everyone keeps calling me by her name. I guess I’m not the only person with this problem!
Leave a Reply to cagey Cancel reply