PlatKat.com: I'm Ready for My Close-Up, Mr. DeG00b

Saturday, April 05, 2008

I'm Ready for My Close-Up, Mr. DeG00b

Last Sunday, I was playing dominoes with Jessica and a couple of friends at the Satellite. Jessica, who is infinitely socially graceful, is very good about casually "reintroducing me" to her friends who frequent the place, since I just moved to the area and am constantly meeting new people.

At one point in the evening, a young man I recognized sat down at our table. Without missing a beat, Jessica said, "Kat, you remember Brett, the filmmaker? Brett, you remember Kat, right?"

Brett and I had met at a mutual friend's art show earlier that month. We spoke briefly, but nothing memorable came of it. Therefore, I didn't mind that he'd forgotten who I was when we met again at the Satellite a couple of weeks later. Jessica reintroduced us, and he made sure to inform me that he knows someone else named Kat, but she lives in San Francisco. As you may have guessed, I found this news thrilling and wish to this day I had informed him that I had a crush on a boy named Brett when I was in the fifth grade, but we lived in Illinois at the time. This type of information is incredibly useful when getting to know someone, and should always be exchanged. What my name is short for also matters very much, since "Kat" is not a real name unless you know the complete history and background of it, and how one could call themselves something so blatantly preposterous.

After I delicately navigated that social trainwreck of a conversation, we ended up having a semi-interesting talk about his independent film projects, and every now and then I was able to get a word in edgewise. I'd say the conversation exceeded 30 minutes and took place well before midnight. He and I were each lucid and acting within reasonable zones of sobriety throughout our encounter.

We saw each other several days later in the company of Jessica, at the Satellite yet again. It was Easter Sunday, so no one was doing so hot, but I remember that he was there and that we'd spoken briefly about something, or at least tried to.

So, fast-forward to Brett's invasion of our perfectly nice domino game and Jessica's spot-on reintroduction. Not only did he forget my name, he didn't even pretend to recognize me. To boot, after Jessica told him my name, he went through the same spiel as our second meeting.

"Kat like the feline?" he asked with slightly overdramatic incredulousness.

"Yes," I replied, "And I believe we went over this when we met before."

He replied matter-of-factly, "You just insulted me."

Funny that he should be insulted when he blatantly disregarded having met me three other times, one of which included a lengthy conversation all about himself. I guess he was so wrapped up in discussing his latest film project that he forgot he was talking to an actual person and not into a tape recorder or microphone. Then instead of humbly apologizing for his bad memory (something I've had to do more than once, no doubt), he had to get all stupid about my not-so-unique name... again.

Everyone at the table was quiet. What do you say to that anyway? "It's your choice to feel insulted" is probably too much reality for a person who doesn't claim to know me, and "I'm sorry" would have been a lie. So, when in doubt, silence works best. He left pretty soon after that anyway.

I know this g00b is used to seeing things from behind the camera, but he could stand to brush up on his acting skills and at least pretend to be interested in someone other than himself.

posted by platkat @ 5:44 PM