This is why I tend to win at games like Trivial Pursuit

This is why I tend to win at games like Trivial Pursuit

My memory gets me in trouble sometimes. As I drive around places and see things I can visualize and remember virtual details from all around me like they had just happened. It helps me win games like Trivial Pursuit, but it also leads to me needing to sift through the mists of memory to figure out why I know someone from somewhere or something. Very often, I will remember something the next day, as what I was thinking about will have had the time to run in the background enough to find the obscure instance I needed to remember.

When I started working graveyard at Safeco, we would play games at night in between calls in order to get everyone into the same area and keep us sharp and focused. No big deal, just a good distraction to pass the time. One of the games was Trivial Pursuit. One of the night crew would smoke everyone collectively at the game. I played him one night and we split some games. He is a very bright guy so it was fun for me to really think before I guessed.

Well, recently I had one of those “where do I know her from?” moments at a restaurant during a going away party for a dear friend moving to the Republic of Texas. I knew that I knew our waitress from somewhere, but I couldn’t place it.

The usual sequence of questions processes:
- Did she have an account when I was a teller a few years ago?
- Did I sub a class she was in? (which horrifies me to think that)
- Was she at another restaurant?
- Do I know her as the friend of a friend or something like that?

I try and let it go. After all, it was a fun evening at a cool club trying to channel Miami Vice. I was with good friends having a very good vodka martini and there were beautiful women to dance with.

The next morning I am listening to a radio college football preview for my Wazzu Cougs when it dawns on me. I know her from a Seattle bar. Yes, a radio program about the Cougs upcoming football season triggered this memory.

The degrees of separation are as follows:
- Cougar foot ball preview
- I want to go to the Apple Cup
- The Apple Cup is in Pullman this year
- The last time the Apple Cup was in Pullman I watched the first half at Jillians and the second half at the bar in question
- The bartenders wear very skimpy outfits very often with chaps
- I remember watching her dance and serve shots in chaps

So, I go to the nearest computer, surf the web to the site, look over the photos and in the first album picture 26, she is the one on the right. I email this information to my soon to be a Texan friend and buddy who so wisely recommended the Ketel One Martini the night before. The response is quick. The soon to be a Texan comments on my memory. I explain the whole sequence of events and the whole chaps thing. I explain, this is why I win at Trivial Pursuit.