In which Miss Conduct says, "DANG"

I am a curvy girl and have, like Anonymous from Medford (Miss Conduct, January 8), also suffered through being the recipient of "gifts" in the form of gift cards to places I clearly wouldn't use, wrapped in ribbons of snark. One year when I received a gift card with a note that took obvious potshots at my height, weight, and shape, I decided I'd had enough. At the next holiday, I re-wrapped the gift card with a note that said, "You gave me a gift from this place and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to return the gesture." I deliberately left her note inside the original folder. When she opened it, she took enormous offense at "my" comment and, in a righteous bluster, shared it with the handful of people in attendance. I, of course, expressed great concern that I might have offended her and peered over her shoulder to check the notation. In a great show of flustered embarrassment, I confessed to all that I had mixed up the card I had purchased for her and the one she had purchased for me the previous year. I no longer receive gifts that are poorly cloaked jabs. If anything, she now pays close attention to things I mention that are of interest to me and makes valiant, and often successful, attempts to gift me with things that I do enjoy.

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