Remember Arsenio Hall and how he used to do a bit called, "Things that make you go hmmnn..."? Well, I think the same thing, but I say to myself, "in-ter-est-ing..." I do this all the time when crazy stuff happens, or just something out of the ordinary. So I thought I might start some quick little blogposts about the kind of things and today is the first one!
This morning as I was leaving yoga and walking out the door, one of the women that work the front desk said to me "Bye, have a nice day!". I turned back to say, "Thank you, you too!" at which time she responded, "Oh, it's you Tracy, I didn't even recognize you, you look so good!"
I then jokingly asked her if she had known it was me would she still have wished me a good day! She said of course....but I was just joking anyway.
As I walked to my car I had two thoughts. What does she mean 'I looked good' and that's why she didn't recognize me? It must be true, I look good! AND What does she mean 'I looked good' and that's why she didn't recognize me? Did I look bad before? And does she realize that she just gave me a backhanded compliment? In-ter-est-ing, hmmnn....
Well, just this last week I had two other people tell me how good I looked...so I'll choose to see it that way. Backhanded or front handed it was still a compliment! (bitch!)
Not long ago, a young female coworker asked me about my "workouts". I explained Hardstyle Kettlebell practice to her to the best of my ability. She said "You look good for an old guy". Talk about a back-handed compliment.
ReplyDeleteguy,
ReplyDeleteFunny, we all probably say things like that, but notice when someone says it to us.
It's the people that purposely give backhanded compliments that you have to be careful of.
I had doozies in Mexico. People in Mexico are very direct and they don't mean to sound mean, they're just painfully obvious. On this trip I was told:
ReplyDeleteWow, you look great...you were so FAT before!
You look like your 30 and when you were 30 you looked like you were 60!
You look the same, except you're not fat anymore.
Nice "compliments" huh? I know they were intended to be compliments, but ouch!
Maribel,
ReplyDeleteLOL :)
A coworker guy knows best how to compliment me.
"You are so pretty. You must have been beautiful when you were young".
Yeah, thank you so much :)
Maribel,
ReplyDeleteThose are hilarious! I love it! These have got to top the list!
Judit,
ReplyDeleteAh...as Mark says "youth is wasted on the young"....they'll get theirs! But they won't look as good as us when they do!