“I saw... oh shoot, what's her name? I'm drawing a blank.”
You ran into one of your boyfriend's coworkers today. You've met her a few times before, but you don't remember her name. You're trying to tell your boyfriend what happened.
I saw... oh shoot, what's her name? I'm drawing a blank.
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Oh, shoot!
"Shoot!" is an expression that you use when you've made a little mistake or when you notice that something is messed up.
"Oh shoot!" is a more-polite replacement for the phrase "Oh shit!" You can use "Oh shoot" instead of "Oh shit" if:
- you're a polite person who doesn't want to say "shit"
- the problem that you've noticed isn't very bad
What's her name?
People ask themselves questions like this when they're trying to remember something.
Ah, what's the name of that little diner on the corner of69th and Broadway?
Now where did I put those papers?
You sometimes add "again" to the end:
When was that again?
No one is expected to answer questions like this.
I'm drawing a blank.
"I'm drawing a blank" means "I can't remember right now." You say this when you're trying to remember something that you used to know, but you can't remember it.
This is similar to the phrase "blank on ___":
"I'm drawing a blank" is fine to use in spoken English in pretty much any situation, but it's not often used in formal writing because you always have a chance to look up the information that you've forgotten!