Monday, January 21, 2013

The afterthought compliment

When I was young, I was super jealous of my sister Hannah's red hair. This was not helped any by my experiences when we were out and about together. As my mom tells it, when she would have both of us with her at the store, strangers would come up and fawn all over Hannah, saying, "Oh my goodness. How pretty. Look at her beautiful hair." etc. Then, they would glance over at me and say "Oh and she's pretty, too," before returning all of their attention to Hannah. We laugh about that quite often now.

Well, the afterthought compliment returned to haunt me yesterday. But I was surprised who I was compared to this time. Darby and I have been visiting a new church, and yesterday we sat by an older woman during the service. During the "stand and greet" time, she and Darby talked for a little while. As we were leaving, she and I had this conversation:

Her: Your husband is sooo handsome.
Me: I agree.
Her: You're a lucky woman.
Me: (Awkward laughter.) Yeah.
Her: I mean, you're a pretty girl, but really, he is so handsome. 
Me: (Death glare --- well, I felt like it; I think I played it cool, though.)

I mean, c'mon people! It'd be better not to give a compliment at all! I'm used to old women complimenting my husband; they love him. And, I agree, he is quite handsome. But I'm not used to being made to feel like I snagged someone waaaayyy out of my league. What do you think? Am I letting my childhood insecurities affect me too much now? :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my lands...that woman better watch out...because as of Saturday, I will be armed and faaaabulous! :) In all seriousness, you are beautiful, and I've always been jealous because you're a skinny ho! (Sorry to other readers...it's an inside joke...yes, she is skinny...no, she's not a ho) Much love to my BEAUTIFUL seeester!

Kalyn Gensic said...

Ridiculous! In ninety percent of all couples both partners are of the same attractiveness level (I'm not sure how that study was conducted, but I've heard it many times, so it must be true, right?) I would definitely put you and Darby in the 90 percent. You are a very nice looking couple. Not to mention you are a Fat Tuesday girl, and that automatically makes you soooooo pretty.