Social Pop Quizzes

[livingdeb]

So, if you arrive early for your private dance lessons, and a couple has lessons right before you do, I used to think the polite thing to do is to avoid eye contact and try not to make them feel like someone is watching them while they are feeling inelegant because they are trying to learn some new skills.

But it turns out that's not always the case, especially when the dance instructor grabs you to demonstrate how something can look and one of them expresses their admiration of your dancing-in-a-trench-coat look.

And I discovered this when we came in early today and realized that this was the woman who had said "hi" to us at a restaurant this weekend and we didn't recognize her. And when she seemed to recognize both of us, I mumbled "dance class" and Robin said, "Oh, ballroom dance!" though I still couldn't remember her at all. Robin at least thought she looked familiar, though he couldn't place her.

I do think I might have recognized her if she had been standing next to her partner--that might have been enough context, but I'm not sure.

Actually, I didn't realize it was the same woman even today until she started telling our teacher the whole story.

So you must always stare at people and memorize them in case they give you an out-of-context pop quiz.

Comments

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Sometimes even staring at them for long periods of time does not help.

I went to a dinner last night where about half the people were my former students. Most of the (sadly) recognized me, but they just all looked vaguely familiar to me. I could not remember what year I taught them, what class, what country... Sad. Truly sad.