My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

A few days ago I was having lunch with two of my co-workers when a girl approached our table.  After staring at me for a bit, she blinked and said, “Y?  Is that you?”

I had no idea who she was.

Halfway through our forced conversation, one in which I tried to mask the confusion on my face and awkwardly avoided introducing her to my co-workers, she revealed that she was my suitemate during my last year of law school.  Apparently I didn’t hide my confusion well enough.  (Although it was a good thing she said something  because I was just about to guess that she was one of my former LSAT students!)  Sadly, even with this bit of information, it wasn’t until we exchanged cards and promises to meet up for lunch that I remembered her name.  And by “remembered,” I mean I looked at her business card.

I feel bad about it.  I lived next door to this girl for a year.  I remember now that she always had her television blasting and walked around with face cream on all the time.  She was friendly, but definitely a peripheral part of my law school life.  Still, I should have remembered her. 

The incident made me think of all the people that have flitted in and out of my life.  I like to think I remember the important ones, but there are so many blank faces and nameless shadows floating in the murky darkness that passes for my memory that I wonder if I’m wrong.  In the past couple of days, I’ve been trying to recall all the other people in my life I’ve forgotten.  I realize many people have much better memories than I do, but I imagine that we all must have them – those people that occupied the background of our lives for short periods, that flickered in our field of vision between blinks.  People who certainly exist but who don’t feel real, who haven’t acquired the substance of a friend or loved one.  Childhood playmates formed before memory was even a possibility, friends of friends who never became more than that, brief crushes who only evoke flashes of feeling but no real memory, classmates who were transitory fixtures for months at a time.  Odd to think that in someone’s mind, I’m one of those unreal background people.