It's not really early here, but I like to sleep late. Not true, actually I'd rather be the kind of person who gets up early, but I am not. But someone is mowing their lawn, so after struggling for a while to ignore it, I am up.
"Tree Stump" and "Ballsy." Wonder what that kid is up to now? Bet it's something interesting.
Oh, but what I really wanted to say is about not being able to remember words, and having to use circumlocutions. I have been doing that for a while, several years now, and it bugs me. I know my memory is still mostly good, everyone always worries about getting Alzheimer's, but as an example of how my memory is still semi-ok, the other day I was looking at the on-line docket for the Iridium Bankruptcy, and there are several cases which are consolidated, and the first one I called up, I could tell wasn't the right case because it didn't have the right number. Well, that's not stellar, I couldn't remember the right number but I knew it ended in 8. Ok, not terribly impressive, but come on, if I had Alzheimer's would I have remembered that?
Anyway.
I have always been bad with names, not for people that I see regularly, but people I don't see often, I tend to forget their names. Probably not you guys because I see your "name" every time I see "you." But people aren't their names. I remember the people very well, I can tell you what they look like, and what they do, and things they did, but the name just goes away. When I lived in New Orleans, there was a woman I liked very much, but I only saw her every few months, I would run into her on the street, or at a bookstore, or at the movies, and I always forgot her name, and it make her feel very hurt. So I started avoiding her.
Last night Ben asked what the difference was between an assassin and a murderer, while we were coming back from eating out, and we were discussing things like murder for hire, and then political assassins, and I couldn't remember the name of Lee Harvey Oswald (!) for several minutes. I could remember Sirhan Sirhan, but not Oswald, I could see his face, all the images, when Ruby shot him, the photo of him standing up holding a rifle, all sorts of facts about his life, but not his name.
Another thing that bugs me is that I don't remember which states are contiguous, at least the ones out west. I can remember all the ones east of the Mississippi, and all the ones on the southern and western perimeter, but I get confused when it comes to Minnesota vs. Michigan, and Wyoming vs. Montana, and Colorado vs. Utah. I've never been to any of them, they are just places on a map. Same thing with Eastern Europe - I can't place Romania and Hungary and so on. Well, you get the idea, same with most of Africa and South America and Asia. I know the big countries but not the little ones.
If you give me a cue, like a multiple choice test, I can pick the right choice, but I can't remember unprompted.
It really bugs me. When I have a new client coming in that I've never met, I have to leave something on my desk to remind me what their name is. Usually I walk into the waiting room and just have no idea what their name is. I'll remember the telephone call, and what their problem is, and once I interview them, I'll remember their name, at least until I don't represent them anymore.
Isn't that terrible? |
