Sunday, August 25, 2013

Fri FR: Street pickup, venue changes with Taylor Swift girl

After the AMOGing nonsense, I met up with 2j and the Natural and did some dance floor openings.  I felt like I was being an ADD party girl at one point in that I was bouncing all over the place.  I was trying to stop some moving girl, trying to talk to the next girl, and then trying to dance with some girl and rinse and repeat.

Seagull showed up a little bit later.  None of us seemed to get anything going in the hour that we had to sarge before closing time.  We went outside as the place closed and decided to try street game.  It wasn't until this night and subsequently Saturday that I regained my belief and confidence in street game.  This whole summer I forced myself to do it and kept wondering how I felt so much more comfortable last year just opening street sets.  Thinking back, I have had some good sets including that 2-set that turned awkward at the grilled cheese place.  My mind set, though, wrongly has been that I was just practicing and making moves but I didn't really believe I was actually going to make something happen.  Now, my thinking has changed.

Taylor Swift girl:
The girl in this report like Taylor Swift, though a bit taller and I have to admit, not as cute as the real thing, but about as slender.  Apparently, my girl was in a taco place a few weeks ago, and some guy came up to her and said, "OMG, you look like Taylor Swift."  Then he asked to take a picture of her and showed her how he instanta grammed (or whatever you call it) to a friend.  She said it felt so awkward.  That's how this whole thread started. 

Saturday night, Seagull said he watched a Taylor Swift video and said this girl really does have a strong resemblance to Taylor Swift.  I said that I'd have to see her again to make a final judgment as I'm not convinced.  Hopefully, I'll get the opportunity. 

4-set, chubby pale girl:
I opened a few sets immediately after hitting the street and then Seagull and I crossed the street.  I saw this 4-set sitting on the concrete window sill area of this bar.  I opened this pale girl that was a little chubby, but definitely doable.  Again, I don't remember the opener just like with my fetish girl on Saturday.  This is because the opener at this point really doesn't matter for me because I can just plow through whatever reaction I get.  Also, now that I'm getting deeper into sets, I tend to remember the mid and later stuff more clearly. 

My target  at the time was receptive to me. Seagull came in pretty quickly and I gave him my usual accomplishment intro and he started talking to the two girls farthest away from me.  The Taylor Swift girl (hereby referred to as TS) was seated next to my original target.  TS was quiet and aloof, but I thought she was the most attractive of the group.  (I giggled to myself on the drive home that I guess I didn't fully learn the lesson from Thursday.  I said I was going to go for the hottest girls, and here I was in this set not talking to the girl I found the most attractive, and just continuing with the one I opened as she was sort of my type, and, probably more importantly to me at the time, she was the most receptive.) 

2j called me when I was in set as he had been talking with the Natural and didn't see Seagull and I cross the street to get into this set.  I told him to come on over and help us with this set.  He arrived and I tried to introduce him to TS.  He tried to talk to her but she didn't really respond.

Seagull makes the move:
The next thing I know, I hear Seagull going for the venue change to the after hours bar down the street.  He said a funny line when one of his targets threatened that it better only be four blocks away.  Seagull said something to the effect of "If it's not, I can give one of you a piggy back ride."  It was funnier as it happened as we all giggled, and I'm not sure if that was even the exact line, but whatever it had been was good. 

The two girls started walking and TS and my original target lagged behind a bit.  2j said, "You guys go."  I tried to get him to come along, "You should come.  That one (TS) is attractive."  (I said that because I knew his reasons for wanting not to come along.  First, TS didn't even really respond to him despite me trying to push her to talk to him twice.  Second, he doesn't like to try to push sets to the end and stay up all night unless they are super hot to him.  He's gotten to the point where he doesn't feel like it's worth it for what he considers HB 6-7's for him as his had enough of them and looks more for quality than quantity.)  It turns out it was good he just left. 

Where in Asia have you been?
Seagull was walking with his two targets.  I kept trying to talk to my original pale girl as we were walking and TS was walking near us.  I teased TS a bit as she was having trouble at time with walking because of her heels.  Pale girl kept wandering ahead of me.  As we got closer to the venue, she seemed less engaged with our talks and I started to talk to TS instead. 

I don't remember much of how I transitioned talking to TS.  I just remember that travel came up and she asked me, "Where in Asia have you been?"  I mentioned Vietnam and she immediately said, "Where in Vietnam?" which isn't the standard question.  The only people who would ask that would be people of Vietnamese background or someone that has been there.  She followed up with, "I'm asking because I was just there recently." 

That thread ignited things for both of us.  I had pegged her as being shy and even a bit rude for not even acknowledging 2j when I introduced him.  I found her attractive as she is a taller blonde, but other than that I didn't think anything was going to be there.  It's funny because I just remember a thread I had with the pale girl when we all had just started walking.  Pale girl had mentioned she was in grab school and I remember putting my arm around her for a second and saying, "Oh cool.  I like smart girls."  She replied, "I'm not really that smart.  If you like smart girls, she's (point to TS) is the smart one."  I remember thinking at the time, "Yeah, whatever.  That's not happening."  Well, that thread just opened her up. 

This is an example of why you should just sometimes plow in sets.  The reason is that sometimes you hit a thread and the conversation and set just opens right up.  Obviously, this isn't that exact case, but the concept is the same.  Thinking back, it almost hard to reconcile that the TS at the beginning of the set was the TS I couldn't stop talking to for the rest of the night. 

Why are we in this long line?:
TS said that as we were standing in line.  I replied, "This place isn't even that great but it's the only thing open."  I started talking about the connected liquor store and said, "This place has good hours as it's the same as the after hours."  I remember saying something like, "If I lived right there, we could grab some beers from the liquor store and just chill there." 

This is where living close would have helped.  It almost might have worked if Seagull had heard this bit but he was too involved in talking to the two girls.  (A sidenote: Some guy had been talking to pale girl, I believe or one of the other girls and Seagull pointed out that he realized later he/we should have invited to the guy to stay with our group so we would have had one less girl to entertain and distract us.  Good point for future situations.)   I asked where my girl lived and she said this neighborhood that was a good 15-20 minute taxi ride.  Maybe I could have just pressed the after party at their place, but I didn't feel confident in that move so decided to play it safe but just sticking with going into the after hours bar.  Later, while analyzing with Seagull, I figured I could have just thrown out the idea out there to see if she'd go for it.  Not putting the idea out there wasn't necessarily playing it safe as I was going to lose the set if I had mentioned it. 

How do I deal with these 3 girls?:
We got inside and my two girls went to the back to use the rest room and it turns out to play this punching bag game.  We quickly decided to get a table.  Seagull's two girls grabbed this 4 person table.  I found this bigger booth but I was afraid to leave my spot to go get Seagull as I figured someone would take it.  I called him and he didn't pick up so I went to move them to my table and as we got there, these 3 Irish looking American girls stole my table as I had feared.  Fortunately, we just went back to the 4 person table and got two chairs so we could all sit. 

Seagull got into a focused conversation with his target.  I had his other target to my left, pale girl to my right, and TS across the little table.  For about twenty seconds, I was thinking, "Wow, how am I supposed to deal with this?  I have to keep three girls occupied and it's too loud to be able to talk in a way that all of them could hear me.  I also wanted to focus on talking to TS, and here Seagull has an isolated conversation going with his target. 

My solution ended up throwing a few bits of conversation at all the girls at different point.  I shouldn't have needed the reassurance, but I realized TS really liked me when she'd lean in to hear what I was saying and ask me to repeat myself when she couldn't hear. 

Venue food change:
I remember telling Seagull as we were walking that I'm lucky he decided to go for the venue change as I would have been stupid and just stood there talking to the girls and not have made the effort to move them.  Well, I redeemed myself at this point.  I remembered that TS had said she was hungry while we were waiting in line.  I remember now that I looked at the table and realized no one was drinking.  I thought about how hot I was (that place is so cheap with the air conditioning that I was sweating just sitting there) and decided we should get out of there.  I knew the food would be a hook and I already had mentioned the diner down the street.  I said to the group, "Since no one is drinking away, we should get some food.  There's this grilled cheese place, but it's loud.  This [diner place] has a full menu and there are interesting people that walk in." 

The girls agreed and we walked over.  When we eventually got into the booth, I positioned myself well.  It was one of those bottle service type booths where the seats wrap around the table.  TS went in one end, and I went in on the other so I'd be next to her.  I actually had to pee but I wanted to make sure the positioning was good so I went in even though I knew I'd have to bother everyone so I could get out a few minutes later. 

Aren't you guys done eating yet?
Seagull later told me that his two targets (I call them that as those were the two he talked to the most) hadn't seen each other for awhile and were the best of friends in the group.  He said he wished he could have gotten isolation but he said the friend of his target kept injecting herself into the conversation and staying with her the whole time.  While we were eating, I saw the two girls seemed to get involved into their own conversation. 

I was enjoying talking to TS.  Now, I normally eat super fast.  The exception is when I'm on a Day 2 and having a good conversation, and this was a similar situation.  Seagull's target had finished her food and TS and I were only halfway done.  One of Seagull's girls said, "Aren't you guys done eating yet?" 

TS replied, "No." 

I could tell by her response that she wasn't in a hurry to leave, but it soon became clear that one of the other two wanted to go.  One of those two mentioned how one of the girls had to drive a long way to get home.  TS said they could get the check and Seagull said, "We already got it." 

I knew I had to number close soon so I wouldn't be forced to take the awkward quick number close at the end.  (Again, here's an example where I should give myself some credit.  Just a few weeks ago, I felt the pain of being stupid and not number closing and not trying hard enough.  Here I was planning ahead.  I have been leading more this past week and making more moves.  Yeah, I still make mistakes that I shouldn't but I can believe I'm going to fix that.)  I just did the standard, "We should hang out again."  TS replied simply, "Yeah, we should."  I went for the number close. 

Taxi:
Here, Seagull and I debated later whether we should have pushed to try to do an after party at the girl's place.  We also debated if we should give them a ride home.  The girls left the restaurant and realized the Brown Line was no longer running as it was late.  They said the were going to take a taxi home.  I thought about offering a ride, but I knew the girls were in the opposite direction of where both Seagull and I were going.  I also figured it was unlikely we were going to hook up with the girls if 3 of the girls were staying at that apartment.  I had what seemed to be a solid number close so why push any more at this point? 

The counterargument is that we could have pushed it.  I think what has merit is that we could have tried it and not tried to really swing for the fences and risk that really awkward rejection.  I just didn't want to give them a ride home if we weren't going to close because in that case it would be more solid to just try to get a high probability day 2. 

Text:
I think I should have done the Brad "Hope you got home safe" but I didn't do it right away and it was too late after I was done driving and thought about it later.  I decided to text her Saturday night as I didn't want to wait till Sunday and have her wondering if I was the guy from Friday or some random guy she met Saturday.  I text her Saturday evening, "Hope you got some rest.  I enjoyed hanging out with you and your friends.  -Pokerpua (obviously my actual name)" 

I didn't expect a response as there's no real question there.  I just wanted to seed things so I could text later.  I knew it was still on when she text a response that was something like, "Yeah, I had fun too." 

I didn't want to try to set up at Day 2 for Saturday night as I wanted to hit River North.  Since she was responding, I was trying to set up for Sunday or some other day.  I was slow in replying so I got no response.  I'll just have to try again.  I figured she was out with her friends again and I was fortunate to get the few responses that I did.  I just have to text her again Sunday or Monday and try again. 

I think I did this about right:
That's my final analysis, though I still want to run this by 2j as he's more experienced with late game stuff.  I didn't go for a kiss close, but that wouldn't have been appropriate here.  My only other possible move was to try to get my girl to the dance floor, but then that would have left Seagull stuck with 3 girls.  Maybe I should have tried it, but I'm not unhappy with how things played out.  As I mentioned above, there were some debatable moves of just pushing for a party at Seagulls place early instead of going into the first venue, and pushing for the after party after the diner.  Again, I'll have to talk to 2j.  


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