I went to the Georgetown-Providence game on Saturday. Every time I go to a Hoyas game in DC, I have to scramble to find a ticket in the young-alumni section, where my friends all sit. Usually it involves a bunch of emails to people I don’t really know and a whole lot of scrounging.

This time, I was able to score one off a friend of a friend. Long story short, I had to meet his roommate outside the Verizon Center to get the physical ticket. It was cold and drizzling and the roommate didn’t show up until about 10 minutes after tipoff.

So when I finally get to my seat I’m reasonably wet and a bit flustered, trying to figure out which row I’m in and what seat I have and keep an eye on the game at the same time. When I identify my correct row and spot my seat, four seats in from the aisle, the guy on the aisle says, “TED!”

It turns out it’s a dude I know pretty well and hung out with a bunch in college, but I haven’t seen him in years. And in the interim, he’s lost some weight, grown a beard, and lost all of the once-longish hair he used to have on top of his head. Like I said, I’m a bit discombobulated as it is, so it takes me a second to recognize the guy — just long enough that he has to remind me who he is (exactly as I’m putting it all together), something that makes me feel like kind of a jackass since I know this guy pretty well and he’s an extremely nice dude.

Then to make matters worse, when trying to excuse myself for not instantly recognizing him, I say: “Dude, I didn’t recognize you without all the hair!”

Yikes.

His friends got a pretty good laugh out of it and he seemed to think it was pretty funny too, especially since it was immediately clear I didn’t mean to behave like a comedy villain. Plus he pulls off his baldness pretty well, so hopefully it’s not something he’s all that self-conscious about.