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Dear Breakup Girl,

After my breakup, I did what every modern guy does -- be glad my health care covers a psychologist and get some therapy to understand the situation. (And read some Breakup Girl comics and letters to get my clue mojo working.)

Now: a friend of mine set me up on a semi-blind date. (I've met the young lady in question, so it's not a completely blind date.) We're planning a rather nice Saturday afternoon date in the Big City; wandering around one of the Big Museums and then having dinner at a Small Quiet Place (That Will Cost Too Much, But What The Heck).

I have it on the good authority that she's been babbling nervously about me since our first meeting, so presumably this means that she finds me interesting in some way...

My question is: What's considered acceptable first-date behavior nowadays? I'm way out of the dating scene; my last relationship was over-the-net-long-distance-intense-short-time-together without any real DATE dates. I'm clueless! Do I give her a flower when we meet up? Do I escort her all the way home on the subway? I'm kinda lost.

-- Herr Niemand

Dear Herr Niemand,

Ah, the good ol' fashioned DATEdate. I love it. I'll give you some hints, but please know that you'll be just fine, as long as you treat this as one special DATEdate...of many. Special, but simply so. Don't call the Spielberg people.

Your plan sounds solid, though remember that dinner can be casual. Definitely a place where you read the menu sitting, not standing, if you know what I mean, and not a place where you could have made banana splits for your pre-ninth grade summer job. But definitely a place where you feel comfortable and in your element. (Your outfit of choice should do the same trick. Clean, tidy, and pressed, but a few buttons down from that fidgety little boy "I'm going to church!" look.)

Flower? Nah. She'll have to carry it around. Take her to see this instead.

Subway? Nah. It's a very gentlemanly question to raise, but since "gentlemanly" is no longer necessarily the order of the day for either sex, alas, she'll wonder if you're, like, following her. The she'll-tell-her-friends-the-next-day thing to do instead would be to call her a cab, put her safely in, and hand the driver a $20 for her fare.

Last tips: Spielberg, Schmielberg. If you want to see real "light and magic," definitely don't miss the Chardin exhibit. (As long as Small Quiet Place doesn't specialize in partridge.) Oh, and if you take her to the secret (until now) rooftop garden, she'll be yours forever.

Love,
Breakup Girl

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