38 + 3 = 41

That's more like it! 41 lbs. this morning... which means I've reached my half-way point and left it in the dust. WHOO-HOO!!!!! I weighed in at 153 today. Gosh, I can remember way back in April when I counted forward to the end of the year. I figured if I could lose 1 lb. per week, I'd weigh in at 155 by New Year's Eve. Here it is late September and I've hit that mark already. My next goal? 145. I'd like to see it by November 21 at the latest.

I've honestly had a tough time this week getting back into the swing of things. Last minute social plans, the need to buy some clothes in my new size... there have been lots of things disrupting my routine, but I'm determined to put my house in order this weekend. The one thing I've clung to like a life raft has been my reducing and fitness plan. No matter what else is happening around me, I've got to keep riding this momentum for as long as it lasts. The next plateau could be around any corner.

So I may have a date - of sorts - this afternoon! Nope, not Curly. Just the fellow my friend set me up with. The emailer. I adopted the vintage attitude of waiting for him to make the first move and it took, well, I think it's been a few weeks now. Maybe a month. He finally wrote and asked me, "Would you care to get together sometime this week?" We've had to plan the date via email, but it looks like we might be meeting this afternoon for a cup of coffee at a restaurant which serves desserts only. And we'll see what happens. I'm not expecting any chemistry --- but you can't plan that kind of thing, right? He seems like a nice man. I wanted to see it through to an actual date because of our mutual friend. And I could use some practice with this whole dating thing! Perhaps we'd better check in with Lily Haxworth Wallace in The New American Etiquette (1941) to see if she has any advice that might help me out:

As explained in the section on "dating" it is quite proper for a young lady to ask a man to call on her and her mother or it is quite correct for him to ask if he may.

The inclusion of the mother in the invitation or request is one of the ways we have to show that we do not entirely forget the proprieties of the past, because, most assuredly, the mother will probably only stop for a few words after the young man has been presented to her. She will then vanish into another part of the house and only appear again just before she goes to bed or when the young man is leaving. When bidding the mother good night, the young man should ask her permission to call again. This need only be done at the first call.

The young girl who has an apartment alone or with another girl is faced with an entirely different problem. The girl en famille is never criticized by Mrs. Grundy when she entertains a young man even though she may be as much alone with him as the girl who entertains him in her apartment. There is no difference at all in what happens, but the girl alone, who entertains her men friends, is often the target of all sorts of gossip. Even the men who call, of course eliminating those who know her very well, seem to feel a difference between her and the girl in her own home.

The girl alone had better insist that her men friends leave early, not after midnight. It is better if she makes her dinner parties affairs for four. She should not invite her escort in if they arrive home after twelve. Her parties should never be loud affairs and it would be best if liquor is kept at a minimum. If she so acts, the single girl who lives alone will give Mrs. Grundy little to talk about.

The wealthy girl, who for some reason lives alone in her apartment, would be wise to have a companion - something like a chaperon - and then she can entertain to her heart's desire. Of course, if she has a retinue of servants, they, also, tend to keep gossip at a low ebb.

So far, so good. I'm not planning on entertaining this young man in my apartment. Thank goodness for restaurants and other public places! My fellow diners should help to keep Mrs. Grundy at bay.