Care and Feeding

Some important considerations, if you meet me in public:

  • I am face-blind. The condition, called prosopagnosia, means my brain does not process the details of a human face in a way that is conducive to the orderly storing and retrieval of information. This article from the pages of the noted medical journal Cracked.com is a decent enough primer on the day-to-day realities of it. Please don’t take it personally if I don’t recognize you on sight. It just doesn’t work that way for me. I ask that people introduce themselves to me, even if we’ve met before. I don’t mind strangers coming up to say hi, but if we haven’t met before, it’s a big help if you tell me that fact, or otherwise I’ll be trying to figure out who you are and how I know you.
  • I am also, apparently, not very demonstrative or expressive. I don’t know if this is related to the above or how, but I’ve been told it’s difficult to tell if I’m enjoying myself and having a good time. It’s okay to check in with me to see if I’m okay, but a lack of a smile doesn’t mean I’m not happy.
  • I have a chronic fatigue condition resulting from a mitochondrial mutation. Depending on the day, I might be leaning on a cane, making use of seats marked priority for handicapped, et cetera. Or I might not be. There are good days and bad days, and a whole spectrum of ones in between. If I don’t offer to help carry something, or don’t hold open a heavy door, it’s not an affectation of daintiness. It’s a matter of resource management. If I exert myself too hard, I pay for it later.