Mistaken Identity

In the past two days I have been a victim of mistaken identity twice. With a relatively common first name and last name I have never been under any delusion that I was the only Michael Taylor out there. This little occurrence got me doing a little bit of research into the other Michael Taylors out there.

Today I got an instant message from another AT&T employee in another state. She was asking me about assisting her with something on her PC. Since I knew the answer I went ahead and told her. I then asked her why she felt that I would be able to help her. She promptly apologized for sending the message to the wrong Michael Taylor.

Yesterday, Victoria received a condolence card from the American Heart Association. It was addressed to her and stated that a donation had been made to the AMA “in memory of Michael Taylor”. I called the AMA to let them know of the mistake. I announced that she had apparently received the card in error because I was very much alive. To which he replied, “I’m sorry to hear that.” Well the AMA may be sorry to hear it but I’m downright elated that I’m still alive. I’m sure he meant that he was sorry that they sent the card to the wrong person. I just thought it was rather funny.

A quick Google search for my name revealed about as diverse a group of people as you could imagine.

There was a death notice for 16-year old kid who was shot in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser,
A man awaiting a stay of execution in Missouri,
A San Diego personal injury attorney,
A Sacramento portrait photographer,
A college football recruiter,
A British figurative painter,
A custom furniture designer,
A screenwriter for Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,
A visiting Robotic researcher at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute,
A UCLA Geology graduate student,
An African-American author of motivational books,
An Anchorage, Alaska anesthesiologist, and several other characters of all types and descriptions.
I'm not going to get too introspective on this. I just thought it was neat to do a little research on the rest of the crowd that shares my name.