That's a beautiful dress

I have a talent.

It's not necessarily a good thing, however.  It's just something I do - all the time.  Maybe I should call it a habit.  I just always say this:

"I have a real talent for telling someone that they are wearing a very beautiful dress (or any other thing where I am being complimentary) and it comes out - That is the ugliest dress I ever seen."

I don't know what it is, the inflection in my voice, the look on my face, what I am doing with my hands.

I truly mean it when I say it's beautiful, but I cannot begin to tell you the times in my life when those words have not been perceived as complimentary.

It's worse on line.

Remember when email was first coming into its own and we learned that capitalizing all the letters was rude, that it made us look angry. 

We all had to learn a little email etiquette. Bold and italics works just as well as those caps.

I've recently been reminded that when I communicate via immediate or a text, I need to realize that everyone who reads my words may not necessarily take them the way I send them.  I usually assume (bad practice) they will be able to know what I am trying to say without my having to add extra words.  I have found that often that is not the case.

One of the downfalls of communicating via all the technological opportunities we have at our fingertips is that the recipient cannot see our facial expressions, experience our body language and we have no idea what might be going on in someone's mind.

In writer's classes we learn to use action verbs rather than adjectives.  That's a good idea - so from now on I think I'll try to add a word or two that lets the reader know what I really want to say.

Maybe if I say "that dress matches your eyes - it dazzles"

You think?