Mistaken Identity

The other day, this guy came up to me, beaming, he put his hand forward for a handshake, and said, "Lex, how are you?" I looked at him, shook his hand, I am well mannered of course, and couldn't recognize him from a bar of soap. He still kept smiling at me, so I had to ask him where I/he had met before. He explained to me that I used to work at some place( it didn't register in my memory) I had never been there before. And then I realized, yes it was happening again. I am often mistaken for somebody else. Not just the understandable, "you look like so and so..." but genuinely taken to be somebody else.

Previous to this episode, I bumped into Judy, that I hadn't worked with for a while, she warmly greeted me and asked me how my wife was doing. This perplexed me because as far as I could remember, Judy and my wife had never met. She then went on to recall how I had danced with her at a previous Christmas party. I was now really confused, beginning to doubt my own memory. Did I really dance with Judy? Had I forgotten something in my recent past that I should have remembered? She was adamant. I was perplexed. Judy and I had worked on and off over the years, how could she confuse me with somebody else? After long contemplation, I realized it wasn't my memory failing, but her confusion remained, she refused to believe me.

This kind of incident happens to me all the time. What is it about me? Does this happen to other people? I've even been accused of having a twin brother, which I don't. It's spooky.

"Didn't you used to be somebody else? " is what I'm waiting to hear. It has to happen eventually.