My mom hosted a small dinner party on Saturday for us to welcome my son back from
Iraq.  My son, sister, brother, grandfather, brother-in-law, step-father and
niece were all there.  My son and I had decided to go in separate cars, and I was
detained by about 15 minutes, and everyone was already eating when I got there
(it was at a retirement community dining room where everything is on a schedule,
so they had to start without me).  I rushed into the room and was greeted by
everyone.  I rushed over to my seat, but set some things down first.  When I
turned around, almost everyone was staring at me, STUNNED into silence!  They all
knew I had been losing weight and a few had even seen me around Christmas, and a
couple had seen my recent progress photos on-line, but I think everyone had
simply been accustomed to seeing me much heavier and flabbier, and seeing me in
the flesh was like a big POW in the face for them!  Then they all started talking
at once, RAVING about how great I looked.  Then they all started CLAPPING and
CHEERING for me, as if *I* were the guest of honor instead of my son!  I took
bows (with a special reverse bow for my BIL who is a die-hard fan of my a.s, even
at my heaviest :-) and generally gloried in their praise :-)  For the rest of the
afternoon they just couldn't get over the change in me.  It was really a GREAT
feeling!  I had to keep reminding them that I just looked like ME again, but it
was wonderful to get such great reinforcement for my efforts from my closest
loved ones!