When someone compliments me on a peculiarity, I don’t know how to respond. I suddenly become self-conscious and my mannerism becomes an affectation. Someone will compliment my laugh. They’ll used words like sexy, bawdy, and brazen (Really? Oh, go on!), and vanity takes over. My sexy becomes a snort, my bawdy chuckle a toothy bray, and my brazen come-on morphs into something creepy and unintentional. I am no better off when someone calls attention to the way I walk. I’ve been told I have a self-assured gait, a sensuous samba, and a feminine air when I move. (Well, goodness me!) This usually goes straight to my already inflated ego, and I lose all semblance of “graceful” and “alluring.” I gambol ostrich-like, all hips and haunches. I mince, teetering and stumbling like my shoes pinch, and worse yet, I amble side to side like a mama ape foraging in the jungle. None of my peculiarities are intentional, honest. They are just a product of who I am, so when someone asks me to