I have a gift

I have a gift. I am short sighted and I have a terrible memory. Basically I live my life ignorant of the people I meet in the streets, either because I don't remember them or because I don't recognize them.

I have a natural tendency to play stupid when I met an ex-boyfriend in the supermarket queue, and I am happily oblivious to the fact that the same can happen to me, so I never lose time thinking how old my high school buddy looks like and how he dares ignoring me.

My gift makes me transparent to gossip, and this a great quality in a small city. When I am told gossips I am not able to put a face to the people in the story, let alone repeat the gossip faithfully afterwards. To me, these conversations always seem to finish with a "how can you not remember?" and an insecure "I do, of course I do..." from my side. The beauty of this is that I can behave like a drunken monkey in any place without noticing my neighbor, my mum's colleague and my grandma's sister sitting next to me.

Even when talking about people that I recognize with no problems, I have trouble remembering other details, like their names and the fact they have children. Recently I asked my life-long oculist how his grandchildren are doing. He is not even married.

So, to be fair, I can't get upset when my family asks me (as usual) how I am doing in... that... country and then mess up my husbands name. It must be a genetic thing.