Prosopagnosia, or Don't I know you??

Karl was amazing at remembering people - their names and faces, their pasts, their stories.. He had a gift for it. If he ever met a stranger, they weren't a stranger for long.

I'm not like that.

I have this problem with faces and names. If you lined up bunch of people I had met several times, but didn't know well, I could tell you I knew them, but wouldn't know from where. I wouldn't be able to tell you if they were old co-workers, former students, neighbors, or friends of friends. Karl told me tons of stories about friends, and I can remember them in the stories, and I know their names, but for some reason, when face to face with somebody, I blank.

I'll know I've met a person, sometimes many times, but I have no idea who they are. I come around a corner at the grocery store, and BAM - there's a woman, and a spark of recognition... and I just can't place her.

When I'm lucky something clicks and I suddenly know that yes, this is Alice, and I worked with her for a year, and she has two kids, and she makes great pie! And she came over for New Years once... But I can't remember ANY of that just from seeing her face.

I've never been able to keep celebrities straight - their faces blend together. It's a little easier with men than with women - maybe it's the makeup? It's hardly ever a problem with kids - they always look unique. So strange.

It's very frustrating, and leads me to second guess myself even when I'm sure I know who somebody is. I'm hesitant to use people's names for fear I'll get them wrong, even with close friends.

So if you kind of know me, and we meet at the zoo, and I seem a little out of it, I'm probably trying to find you in my brain. You are in there, and I will get that bit to fire, but it may take a minute. In the mean time, please don't hesitate to re-introduce yourself and forgive me my prosopagnosia.