Wait, don't tell me. It'll come to me. I know it.

I'm no good with names. There's a 50-50 chance I'll forget yours 10 seconds after you tell me. It's not that I'm disinterested. It's more that I'm too interested in what you're saying, in the messages you're sending, in what my next question will be. The name's just a formality. So unless I concentrate on it, I'll lose it before we've finished our introductions.

That's awkward when you ask me to slow dance and I spend the entire song trying to remember the name you told me 3 minutes earlier. It's even more awkward if we've just met and I'm asking you to do something for me. And it's definitely not a good thing when your job is all about getting people's names right.

The problem is I hate admitting that I forgot your name. It seems so rude - and even though I probably am rude to have forgotten. I'd just rather not admit it. So instead, I guess. But not just wild guesses. Usually I have some vague sense of what your name is based on the patterns of the letters. If your name is Hillary, I'm likely to guess Stephanie or Tiffany because they've got the same number of syllables and double-consonant sounds, or whatever. You're probably thinking Tiffany sounds nothing like Hillary. I think it's a perfectly legitimate guess.

But here's my theory: if I guess right, you're going to feel really special. And if I guess wrong, it's not any more rude or awkward than admitting I didn't know your name to start with. I had a coworker who hated this and begged me just to admit I didn't remember names. The truth is we LOVE it when someone remembers our name, don't we? And that makes the gamble of a guess worth it!

So tonight I gave myself a headache trying to remember the names of all 11 girls who showed up for Activity Days. (See previous post for explanation.)

Asia, Allison, Kelsye, Mikaela, Mariana, Ashlynn, Emily, Halle, Olivia, Sydney, Kyra.

Now if I can remember all of those names (and a few are doozies, wouldn't you agree?) two weeks from now when I see the girls again, I figure I'll have them in my back pocket.

If I can't, I'll just guess "Tiffany."