Yesterday as I walked into Winco I heard "Hey, that's Katie!" Naturally I stopped. A woman, slightly older than myself who looked vuegly familiar said "Hi, how have you been?" to me. She then said to her mother "You remember Katie don't you? Kathy Morgan's daughter." Her mother replied, "Oh, my it's been about 20 years!"

Please understand I'm only 26!

So I spent a few awkward minute 'catching' up with two people I wouldn't know from Adam (err, Eve?) and hadn't seen since I was in grade school. The daughter even asked if I remembered her to which I replied yes. I lied. I had already gotten too deep in to admit that I had no idea who she was. She obviously knew me. Knew me by name, knew my parents and my sister. I couldn't let her feel bad by letting her know she hadn't made as much of an impression on me.

We talked about safe things, my mom, my sister, kids and such. Then I went on with my shopping assuring her I would tell everyone she said Hi. Luckily, I guess, she told me her name was Ann.

As I walked through the store I was reflecting on the incident.

It happens often enough. I'm really bad at remembering people's names, faces, or anything about them really. But as Ann said my face hasn't changed in 20 years so people seem to remember me easily. And I have a really hard time making people feel uncomfortable. So when people recognize me I always pretend I know who they are and at the same time I would NEVER put someone on the spot by saying "Hi, I haven't seen you in 20 years do you remember me."

That's what I though about while I walked through the store. I would never even thing to go up to someone I thought I knew once upon a time and say hi. Even if we had been friends at one time or if they were a relative of a friend or something.

I don't know if it's so much to avoid putting people on the spot or because I have this huge fear that they will look at me and say "I don't know who the hell you are, go away!" but I guess I have a strict inner policy of not talking to people who don't talk to me first.

I imagine that at some point this has caused people to think I'm a snob. I remember the first time I started working at Fred Meyer. I was working in the same department as a girl I had gone to high school with and had played soccer with when I was 10. After several months of working together and slowly becoming acquainted again she confided in me that she was glad we were becoming friends because she had always thought I was kind of a snob.

Hu?

I was completely taken aback because if there was one thing I had NEVER considered myself it was a snob. The fact was I had such low self esteem and didn't talk to people so much that apparently people (or at least one person) thought I felt I was too good for them.

Weird how life goes...