Unique & Unexpected Compliments

First off, I must say that I am not known for my looks, rather, I am not known by having good looks; I am known for, and it pains me to type this, I am known for my personality. Bleh. Anyone, especially a female, who is not terribly attractive is loathed to be said to have a "great" personality. It's the consolation prize and it sucks. All that having been said, it is rare that a genuine and believable compliment is bestowed upon me. When it is, I tend to lock it in my memory forever.
Years ago I worked in a small café attached to a book shop. It was the best job I ever had. I got paid less than eight dollars an hour and once was so broke that I had to subsist on porridge packets for three weeks that my Aunt in a nursing home passed to me. I lived in a charming rowhome in a crummy part of Philadelphia that had cockroaches in summer. Yeah. Cockroaches. Sometimes they would perch on my step and wait for me to come home at 1am. It got to the point where I had to carry a water pistol with me and shoot them off the step and then dash inside. But I digress. So, I worked in a café and the people I worked with were wonderful, and most of the customers were equally as wonderful. I could wear jeans and funky t-shirts, pink All-Stars, and have purple spiked hair. Life was good.

Busing the tables one weekday evening, I smiled at one of the four customers in the café. She wore fun rainbow striped reading glasses and had brown hair and a lovely smile. She said to me, "I picked this up in the bookstore and I know I don't know you very well, but I think this describes you perfectly." She held up Exuberance by Kay Redfield Jamison. She had been watching me that night while I chatted with the patrons and noticed that it seemed as though I was best friends with each person I spoke with. Years later I can barely recall this woman's face, but I remember her kindness. She said I was exuberant. How divine is that?