Probably one of my worst habits is that I assume people won’t remember me so I pretend not to remember them either. And if I’m introduced to someone whose work I admire I don’t tell them, I just say It’s nice to meet you, as though I didn’t know their name. And if someone tells me their news, I pretend I haven’t already seen it on social media.

Those are probably three of my worst habits.

But last night I was talking to a friend and she told her boyfriend in front of me that I post nice pictures of cocktails on Instagram and that it makes her want to drink more nice drinks and then she said And you’re really good at Instagram stories, I’m really glad you started doing that. And I couldn’t believe she was acknowledging the existence of our internet lives in real life and I was flattered and impressed. And, I was emboldened. I thought, That’s nice. I should acknowledge that I know people from the internet.

So later, when a different friend greeted a woman I worked with a year ago and then turned to me and said Do you two know each other? I felt confident enough to say, Yes, we do. How are you? And of course she did remember me and we had a nice conversation. And I thought Well, that went well.

But then I got a little too confident and I said, Actually I think about you all the time.

And she said, Oh.
And I said, Because I play that game Two Dots on my phone and I see you come up on the leaderboard every time I finish a level.
And she said Oh, right. I’m addicted to that game.
And I said, Me too. And I could have left it there. That would have been normal.
But then I said, Actually, the other day I finished a level and me and you had got the exact same score but they placed me above you on the leaderboard and I felt kinda bad about it so it’s good I’ve seen you because now I can apologise in person.
And she said, Oh. And then she paused and then she said, Thank you.

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^{A version of this post was sent by email on the 21st July 2019 as part of Internet Care Package – a weekly memoir project in the form of a newsletter. It also includes links to the best things I’ve found on the internet each week and occasional updates on my theatremaking. This blog is a select archive of those emails. Subscribe to get them right in your inbox.}

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