in the past two days i’ve seen about 5 people from my old library’s community. some of them i’ve just waved to, some of them i’ve chatted with for way too long (“erm, i’m doing reader’s advisory for these patrons! and they needed me to hold their baby so they could carry more books!”) and some of them i’ve actually been able to chat with and give them book recommendations. it is such a lovely surprise to see these old friends again–to see how their kids have grown and how life moves at such a crazy pace (i can’t believe i’ve been at my new job for nine months already! women that were barely pregnant when i left now have kids!) and to be able to talk to them about the place i worked at for 4 years and realize that although i was happy there, i actually enjoy my new job even more.
a woman came in today whom i had known very well when i worked at my last library. she was a regular patron but also a passionate community supporter of the library. when i worked there, i was able to identify her voice immediately on the telephone after only one or two words. today, when she walked up to the reference desk, i recognized her immediately, but could not, for the life of me, recall her name! after we had chatted for about five minutes, her first name floated out of the fog and teased the edges of my brain until i finally was able to grasp it, but i wasn’t yet brave enough to drop it in conversation. another five minutes passed until finally her name, first and last together, finally popped into focus. i say “focus” because for me this was really quite visual. in my head, i saw her name spelled out. once i had both names together, i was sure that i had the right name and could relax for the rest of the conversation, occasionally dropping her first name at the end of sentences as though i had known it all along. isn’t it funny how our brains store information? if i don’t use a piece of information for just a few months, it gets buried deeeeep within the folds of my brain. if i don’t use a piece of information for a year or more it will take prompting for me to remember it. and then, occasionally, some random little bit that i had no idea that i even had ever remembered will appear, full-fledged and ready for duty (or… maybe with only partial alterations)! (like songs from electric company or the phrase “forgetful jones”)
does anyone else dredge up old information visually? anyone do it aurally? tactile-ly??
