It’s a somewhat common experience to zone out while driving and not remember how you got from points A to B. However, is it just as common to “wake up” from being zoned out between points A and B and momentarily forget that you’re in New(ish) Location and not lost in your Old Location (hometown). Or say someone asks you for directions someplace and you give them directions how to get there based on a different location you lived? I’ve been living in the Midwest US for 12 years now and still occasionally give directions or think I’m still on the East Coast.
I’ve accidentally said an old address or telephone number after a move, but more commonly, if I’m traveling in a place I’ve never been before, I’ll see someone and think, is that Bill from work? Of course it never is, because I’m 1000 miles from home, but for a split second I don’t realize how improbable that would be.
Reminds me of a sci-fi story I read. A detective (wait was this in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, maybe? I don’t remember, anyway) is looking for a person and asking around. I stead of carrying around a picture of the person they are looking for, they compare the person’s features to a list of celebrities and just go around asking if anyone has seen someone that looks like that celebrity. Point being lots of people have surprisingly similar features and there really are “doppelgangers” out there.
But just try explaining that to some stranger that just caught you staring off into space directly at their face because they look like a person you had a crush on in college, only you’re an old fart now and they don’t look like that old crush would look now, but like the memory you have of them. “You look like someone I know” always sounds like a pickup line.
I once spent a longer than acceptable amount of time staring at my best friend’s new girlfriend during a movie just because I couldn’t figure out which actress she reminded me of.
It was Sandra Bullock in case you were wondering.
Except when it is them. It happens to me surprisingly often, even internationally. I ran into two people from my previous city twice in the last month and a half, purely by chance