I was that cool guy in the club

It feels weird for me to type that, but it hit me as I was laying on Asian Cousin's floor.  I think this is the one night in this journey that I've come closest to being the ideal PUA/cool guy in the club.  I've had other nights where I've done better in terms of results in that I actually made out with a girl, and pulled.  With the exception of not setting up the kiss close with fitness girl, and not making some crazy gay role play method to pull the Canadian girl with the boyfriend, I about did everything right.

There were mistakes in that maybe I could have ran some other sets differently, but when I think about all the Tyler stuff I've listened to about how to be in the club, I really think Saturday was a massive breakthrough in that for once, I was as close to living out what he describes as I've ever been in this journey.

Tyler talks about how you should be the one having the most fun in the club.  Most of the time, unless I'm having an especially shitty time, I do have a blast going out.  It's just that often ,there's a lot of time where I'm hesitating to open, or I'm just standing around know/thinking about how I should be opening or doing something.  From the moment I walked into the first venue, I was having a blast and I don't even remember standing around hesitating.  Sure, there were times when I was dancing by myself or walking around, but I was thinking about what I should be doing.  I was just in a constant flux of having fun and "being in the moment" (another line Tyler uses to describe this proper pickup state).

Cheat codes/alcohol helped, but to my credit, I had some good moments on Friday when I was completely sober.

This whole week has been full of breakthroughs.  I didn't even write about it until now, but Thursday had few sets, but I had some moments of brilliance there too.  I remember thinking about how I had two sets where I was so spontaneously creative.  I just came up with some funny, entertaining, new material instantly.

The week was filled with a surprising number of girls giving me the anime eyes of interest.

Heck, I even got opened, and then there was this unbelievable Canadian set where the girls was all over me with the boyfriend right there.

I guess it's 10 years of one and off work towards pickup finally starting to come together.

Now, if anyone is reading this, don't think that I'm all of sudden full of myself or something.  I'm just appreciating how far I've come since starting this journey, and how quickly I've reversed things from that shitty Feb 13 outing.

I have a long way to go and I still need to break super long dry spell of not getting laid.

I can just see that I've arrived.  I probably will get laid a lot very soon because I can see that if I just keep going out, it's going to happen that I make out with girls and ultimately pull.  Well, I suppose I could get a number close+ day 2 route as well.

I forgot to even mention that I did some day game on 1 hour of sleep Sunday with Asian cousin.  I haven't done serious day game in probably 4 years.  Yeah in Atlanta, we opened some sets in the day time,but this was serious walking around the Magnificent Mile trying to open random girls walking by or walking around the mall.  I didn't get any numbers but it felt good to be doing it again.

Asian Cousin said I did well Saturday and I can't even be hard on myself for my mistake(s) that night.  I really can see that if I just keep doing what I've did last week, I can start actually living the PUA life style I've sought since starting this, heck, that I've sought my whole life.

What sucks is that I'm now sick from ramping up my work out, and probably from this one wing being sick on Tuesday.  I just have to rest.  I hope I can go out by Thursday or Friday as I can't go out Saturday as I'm going on a 24 trip to St Louis to do a food competition.  I don't have to not sarge for an entire week and lose momentum.

I even had a big fight with my mother on Sunday that I don't want to get into.

Well, that's how life is though.  I think I can press on and I hope I'll have some more interesting stories to write about soon.

Girl is ALL over me with Boyfriend right there?!

I sometimes am hesitant to go into mixed sets and I don't like dealing with guys, though I usually do well with either winning them over or tooling them.  I haven't been practicing that much since I've returned to the game, and I even had a confrontation with some idiot in Nashville.  

Asian Pua said it best.  When you're in state, you don't worry about such things, but when you're not, you just walk away scared.  

This past Saturday, I would add that when you're in state, some crazy, unbelievable things happen to you.

I've always been fascinated by how the community would talk about pulling girls off of guys, or girls having no problems cheating on their boyfriends with you if your games good enough.  When I had shitty game, I had so many guys come in to try to steal whatever girl  I was talking to, and of course they succeeded several times.  Tyler's old "AMOG tactics" got me confident in dealing with other guys and in my time, I've pulled guys off of girls.  It's just been random guys trying to sarge or maybe I've gotten rid of some jealous orbiter.  

In our last venue for the night on Saturday, I opened this tall blonde.  There were two girls by her and two or three (turned out to be 3), but I barely noticed them when I opened.  The conversation went okay with her, but I learned this good looking, tall black guy was her boyfriend.  

The comment from Asian PUA above came into play, because at the same time I found this out, Asian PUA said he was a in bad state and left the set because he didn't want to deal with this big black guy.  This is ironic in two ways.  First, Asian PUA shouldn't be afraid as he trains MMA regularly.  Though he admits that bigger guys do have a weight advantage and he doesn't want to fight, I'd trust him to handle any situation that could arise, and I think he'd be able to defend himself.  Second, this guy was super friendly and cool in contrast to the other two AFC's in the set.  

After I got introduced to the boyfriend, this blonde girl grabbed my hand and introduced herself to me.  She might have been about my age.  I sarged way cuter girls this evening, but she was cute and not fat, so I would have been happy to hook up with her.  

She had an Irish first name, so I joked and said, "You have 4 names, don't you? (Irish girls often will have 3 names, 4 if you include the surname.)"  I had to repeat the joke as she said, "Huh?" and when I explained it, she said she was Swedish.  

I went over by her and immediately she kept touching me.  It was in various ways.  I swear she almost pulled me to her when we shook hands.  She's put her arm around me, or hold both of my hands.  I quickly reciprocated.  She told me to have a drink with her.  I really just wanted a water, but she insisted, "I'll pay for it.  Have a real drink with me.  What do you want?"

As this was going on, I could see this other black guy with glasses, and some white guy with a beard looking at me.  The beared guy started taping me on the shoulder.  I remember the black guy motioning for me to get out with his thumb.  I initially ignored them.  One of them said that the bearded guy was my girl's boyfriend.  I finally said, "Dude, why are you being weird?  You are being social awkward and weird."  I looked them in their eyes as I said this.  

He backed off for a bit, but I kept an eye on them.  As this was going one, she was telling them to go away and leave us alone.  I could see the bearded guy keep looking at me.  I finally asked her, "How do you know these people?"  She said the bearded guy was her boyfriend.  

I could see the guy was getting pissed.  I actually backed off the kino on the girl, but she still have her arm around me.  

I forgot to say earlier that she was saying stuff like, "Don't ever change the way you are."  She kept complimenting me verbally in addition to being all over me.

I actually worried that this bearded guy might start shit when I found out he actually was her boyfriend.  On a side note, my frame is so weird/solid now that I don't even react when guys say it's their girlfriend as naturals/orbiters will say that shit to get rid of me.  The weird thing is that when she told me, I didn't believe it for a few seconds.

I finally told her, "Listen.  That's really your boyfriend?  He keeps looking over here.  If he touches me, I'll defend myself, but my friend trains MMA seriously, and he'll beat the fuck out of him if that guy touches me."  

It's funny because when I said this, she turned around, and pushed them back again and said, "What's your problem?  He's gay.  Back off!"  

I remember saying, "Why are you with this guy?  He's weird."

Of course, you're not suppose to say negative things about a girl's boyfriend because she'll defend him.  She said, "No, he's a good guy."  

I realized my error (sort of, though I still wasn't saying the ideal things), and said, "I get it, you want a provider guy.  That's cool."  

We did a shot and kept talking.  

The charismatic black guy saw a table open up and invited the group to go over there. I walked over and then saw Asian Cousin.  He said he wanted to go back to the hotel room.  I told him what was up with my set.  He said I should try to walk out with her and pull her otherwise, he agreed when I said I didn't see how I wasn't wasting my time with this set.  

The bearded guy was obviously an AFC.  Yeah, he tried to get rid of me, but obviously this girl would/probably does cheat on him.  If he wasn't there, I obviously would have hooked up with her easily.  I just couldn't see how he'd let me leave with his girlfriend.  They were visiting from Canada, so they likely were in the same hotel room.  

Seagull told me later that maybe the guy was such a chump that he might have let her leave with me.  I could have stayed and found out.  

Free drinks:

I had a lot of time to think about what I could have done.  I ended up just leaving the set.  We tried to open some other sets, but then when Asian Cousin said he was going back to the room, I just went with him as my stuff was there and I didn't want to deal with getting it.  (I should have checked the key as well, as I would have found out it didn't work.  Strangely, I was worried about it not working because I hadn't tried it, and when we tried to get in the fitness room with it later for water, I found it would have been locked out.)  

One thing I thought of is that I could have just stayed in the set.  She bought me a drink and would have kept buying me more.  I bet he way paying for it too, so I would have gotten a rise out of that.  This reminds me of when 2j was with this Latina girl, and she kept asking guys to buy her drinks and then 2j would proceed to drink the drinks.  (2j later would stop drinking, but at that time, he was still drinking occaisonally).  

I get a rise out of that stuff because I was so used to being the AFC that paid for dinners/drinks so it feels good sometimes to get that stuff from women.  It's like a whole different level when you get free drinks ultimately from an AFC boyfriend who is right there.

He's gay!:

This was the best move though and it didn't occur to me until hours later.  She had provided the solution too but I didn't pick up on it at the time.  I remember some community story of some guru pretending to be gay and then pulling a girl home from her group.  Remember that at one point, she tried to disarm the boyfriend by saying  I was gay.

Coincidentally, we met a bunch of girls who were in town for some hair stylist convention.  I could have really played it up and said I was in Chicago for the hair dresser convention.  I think the move would have been to go talk to the bearded guy.  I was thinking I could say, "Oh, your her boyfriend?! Oh, that makes sense now.  I'm a hair dresser here for the convention.  So, what's up with him (I'd point to the good looking black guy who was the boyfriend of the tall girl I initially opened.), he's cute."  

That would disarm them and then I could hang out with her with less scrutiny.  I could then tried to get some isolation with her.  I could try to make out when out of sight, and I could just try to walk out with her and take her to Asian Cousin's room.  

On a side note, I should have checked out Asian Cousin's hotel earlier.  When we got back, we went up to the fitness room and got water.  I realized that it would be easy to pull a girl up there and mess around in the stair well or in the fitness room as no one was up there.  If I'm in a similar situation, I should have look around the hotel so I know all my options.  I didn't think to do that because my mind didn't even entertain the fact that I actually good pull.  (Now, I know my odds are better.  I knew on Feb 14th that it was like 1000, or 10,000 to 1 that I pulled.  Now I'd say it may be 10% or higher, and I better start planning accordingly.)  

Wing help:

Seagull's other idea was that my wing should/could have talked to the guys and distracted them.  Asian cousin was in a bad state and crashed so he couldn't do it.  It's weird that I forgot  I was out with Seagull when we got to this last venue.  We had lost him in the second venue after I busted out with fitness girl.  Asian cousin mentioned him when we were in the cab, so I text him that we had left as a courtesy.  

I must have been still drunk as I seriously forgot I had been out with Seagull when I was in that set.  The set happened just a few minutes after we had gone in the venue, so I never even text him that we had moved to that place.  

Sat Epic Night: I'm the life of the club/Fitness Girl

Asian Cousin kept saying the next day that my game was really good Saturday night and that I definitely beat him if we were having a contest.  I told him that pickup is not a contest.  Everything just came together though and some remarkable things happened.  If I could game like I did on Saturday every day, I would pull regularly, and I really will start to have some unbelievable experiences.  I didn't get laid this past Saturday, but some amazing things experiences happened.  

I really felt like I was in the mindset of being on vacation.  I told this to several sets.  As I've said, if I have to drive home, I have to watch my drinks.  Since I was staying with Asian Cousin, I could just go crazy.  At the same time, I decided when we were drinking at the hotel that I didn't want to get sloppy.  I had just watched a Tyler video about alcohol and game and he mentioned that one problem with drinking is the crash and sloppy game that can result at the end of the night.  I remember how I got messed up three New Years ago.  I made out with this girl and I was so drunk I couldn't close.  I was running into people too and just couldn't formulate a plan on how to get her out of the club.  

I drank more than usual, but not enough to have a crash.  I think I was even sober by 5am.  Asian Cousin, had a major crash and wanted to go back to the room at 2:30am.  I went with him, and it's a good thing I did as my keycard that he had given me ended up not working so I would have had a miserable night waiting to get my stuff out of his room.  

Life of the club early on:

Loaded with cheat codes, I just started opening as soon as we got in.  I remember dancing with this blonde on an empty dance floor.  People were watching of course, and even the club photographer snaps some pics, which I thought was amusing.  

A buinch of sets didn't go anywhere, and I got busted out a few times.  Mostly, I remember getting a bunch of IoI's from girls.  I remember opening two blodes, one was over six feet tall, and one was about my height or a few inches taller.  I initially wanted the tall girl as I always want a really tall girl, but the way the shorter girl reacted to me opening them made it obvious she was into me.  Before my wings could even come in, the tall her pulled my new target away.  

I went back and found them on the dance floor and opened again.  My new target told me that the tall one had a boyfriend.  I said, "I don't like her.  I like you!"  She giggled and said, "I have a boyfriend."  I tried to persist, but she said, "No, I'm serious" and she showed me the lock screen of her phone, which was a pic of her and her boyfriend.  Still, that felt good that I this girl was attracted to me, and that I went back into the set.

Earlier, there was this short Indian girl that seemed into me, but I lost her twice, and then I think she left as I couldn't find her again.  

Fitness girl:

We left the venue and ended up at Public House, which I normally only go to on Tuesday.  I walked in and saw another 2-set of blondes dancing.  One was a little overweight, but cute, and the other one was shorter, in shape, and really pretty.  I immediately went over by them and started dancing.  

Thinking back, I made eye contact with the cuter girl (Fitness girl), and then just kept dancing.  I starting to see that that the way to do it is to make eye contact with them and then not react to how they respond and just dance and have fun.  

I briefly opened the other girl.  I remember stopping myself and saying, "No, you want to just talk to her, but you really want that other girl, so this time you are going to go for the girl you actually want."  

Many time in the past, I've just gone with the less attractive girl, thinking deep down that somehow it will be easier or somehow I don't deserve the cuter one.  It's so dumb because often time the girl I really do want will actually be attracted to me more b/c I'll try harder and my subcommunication will be better as I'm really attracted.  On top of that, the less attractive girl isn't necessarily easier.  

My target was receptive and we had a lot to talk about as she was really into fitness.  She said she was training for her first body building competition.  This came up when I did my usual spiel about trying the typical Chicago foods: pizza, Italian beef, and hot dogs.  She said she can't eat that because she's training.  

I remember I stalled at one point, and Seagull, who had come into wing me, helped me out by pointing to my target's bracelets.  Jewelry is a good way to continue a conversation and to start kino: you touch it and ask about it.  I started talking to my girl again.  

From this point, we started to have pauses in the conversation when we'd just looked into each others eyes.  It really was similar to how it was the previous Saturday.  Obviously, I should have went for the kiss, but it felt like I had to surmount a big hurdle, because I wasn't standing close enough to her, and I hadn't done much kino.  

I ended up not doing anything and after the 4th time of it happening, my girl grabbed the other girl and said they had to go to the bathroom.  

I knew I had fucked up.  I ruined the set because I wouldn't escalate.

Lying on Asian Pua's hotel floor, I later realized a way I could handle future situations in a way that I'll feel comfortable making a move.  I figured that I could have just pulled her in and given her a statement of interest.  She really did stand out from most of the girls I meet a bars.  I  complain to my wings that I probably won't find what I'm looking for a the bar, because there are too many girls that smoke or drink too much.  I'm more into girls that work out.  I thought I'd like a runner, but this girl was even better as an aspiring body builder is more into nutrition than most runners, and she seemed to know her stuff. 

I could have said something like, "This is great.  I'm so used to meeting party girls on the cigarette and booze diet (to use one of Tyler's lines).  This is so refreshing to meet someone into diet and fitness as much as I am."  

Again, as I said this, I could have grabbed her hands and pulled her into me.  I'm almost certain in hindsight that she would have responded well, and we would have just looked into each others eyes and I could have gone for the kiss and probably gotten it.

I think I'll be motivated not to screw it up next time.  On top of having too many sets from the past that I screwed up in this way, this was especially painful.  

Seagull said as the set was walking away, "That girl has a really nice ass (referring to fitness girl)."  

I had a decent shot of possibly pulling her and wow, that would have been amazing to hook up with her.  I love doggie style, and her ass would have been amazing to look at, and more importantly, to grab and feel.  She does squats and deadlifts, etc, so her ass has to be super firm.  Damn...

Tues-Saturday: Sarging every night

I went out Tuesday-Saturday with various wings, but my really good wings came out on Saturday.  This included Asian Cousin who told me on Wednesday that he was staying in Chicago on Saturday night.  He said I could get drunk with him and stay in the hotel room.  I decided to use his coming to motivate myself to go out every night.  I wanted to be a great wing and be the complete opposite of how I was when he came out Feb 13th.

Just a bit of a side note: As lame as I was on Feb 13th, I didn't complain and tried to be positive even though I felt like shit.  I couldn't allow myself to be burden to the night.

I could write a ton of posts on what happened each day, and maybe I should have taken the time to write field reports for each night.  This is already taking too long and I haven't even gotten to the real things I wanted to write about from Saturday night.

Tues-Thursday, I had a bunch of drinks to start off, but as usual, as I'm being responsible, I made sure to count the drinks so I'd be sober by the time I was supposed to drive home/  I still think drinking is a cheat code, but I like the cheap drinks and the night starts out so much better when I do drink.

I'll give myself credit for going out totally sober on Friday.  I want to make sure I do some sober nights because I don't want to rely on cheat codes to sarge.  I see friends who do this and I don't want to have no game when I'm sober.  On top of that, I've been working on trying to just be friendly, funny, and cool in all my interactions.  I can do it in night game, but I want to joke around and make funny comments in the day time and even when I'm just dealing with a store clerk.

Friday was a good night to do it too as we were going out in Naperville.  That city is notorious for giving out DUI's and even though I never drive when the drinks haven't been processed out of my system, I felt it was a good night to just be sober the entire night.

Friday was a breakthrough in that I did great sober.  This was while dealing with my friend who kept talking theory, which is a bad idea when out because being logical is such a different state of mind than being in a fun party headspace.  Despite that, I kicked myself into party mode and I was just opening like crazy and having fun.

A girl opened me!

Andydufresne told me on Wednesday that he doesn't get opened as often as I think he does.  He said that if he goes out regularly, he probably will get opened once a month.  That's more than me, of course. I probably will get opened 1-2 all summer if I go out 3-5 days a week the whole summer.

I was about to open this girl, but when I made eye contact, she said "Hi" first.  I moved her over to quieter area.  She was really nervous and kept fumbling for words.  Early on, she had been giving way obvious ioi's, like she kept talking about my lips and asking what lip balm I was using, and asking if she could try some.

I think I needed to try to kiss close when I moved her.

Finally kclosed again

I think prior to recent events, my last big breakthrough prior to my meltdown was in East Langsing Michigan.  I believe a wrote a field report on how this 20 year blonde was so into me, and I actually went for the kiss close.  She refused it, citing a boyfriend, but as she was leaving, I said, "You're single tonight" and she stopped, and I could see that processed the comment and it resonated on some level.  Looking back, I think there was decent chance I could have hooked up with her if I would have just baby stepped the pull.  I should have offered to walk her home.  In front of her house, I could have then work on getting in, and then it probably could have happened.  

Despite that being a big breakthrough, and not getting the kiss on top of that, I think my game made some big bounds last year.  I just got stuck on not escalating, but I was doing a lot of things right that I had done wrong in the past.  

The one last set on St Patrick's Day, Act 1:

I phrase this section like this because actually St Patricks Day was Tuesday, March 17, and I decided that day to ask people if they were ready for St Patrick's Day 2015, Act II.  Most people went out on the Saturday and I ended up going out with Seagull.  I pregamed with some Jack Daniels I had left from Nashville.  

I've gone out so much lately that I don't remember much of that night. I do remember getting into this long set with this cute Indian girl, but she wouldn't give me her phone number.

I then remember that Seagull was ready to go home, and as usual, I was trying to push him into staying longer and I was looking for more sets.  I walked to the end of Lion Head and saw this girl sitting down.  there was girl and guy at her table.  I opened her and sat down.  

I remember that quickly, I found her gazing into my eyes when the conversation stopped.  I remember thinking, "Wow, I think she wants to kiss.  This is so quick."  The move might have just been to kiss her then, but at least I was smart enough to touch her hand.  She took my hand enthusiastically, and then we looked into each other eyes after the next pause in the conversation, and I went in and kissed her.  The long streak had been broken.  

I number closed her as she seemed to be interested in the Planeatirum and Wow Bao.  We then kissed a few more times but I broke it off quickly as I wanted to try to make a pull happen.  I know that just making it like crazy at the venue can hinder the pull.

I actually asked logistical questions.  She lived close by, and her friend from Indiana was visiting and staying with her.  The friend kept making out with this random Indian guy.  I really thought it was going to be easy to just leave the venue with my girl, the Indian guy, and the friend.  

I also seeded food close.  She seemed to want to get Mexican food down the street and she had even told me she did have food at her place.  

Suddenly, the light went on, and they were ready to leave.  My girl told me goodbye but I told her we should grab food.  She said they had to go.

The Indian guy was smart enough to follow them outside.  I didn't want to do it, but I caught up to them just as he was trying to stop his girl.  They stopped to talk to us.  I told her we should grab food.  She said she had to stick with her friend.  I said that the friend seemed to be getting along with the guy.  She said that the friend didn't want to go home with that guy.  

I just said, "Don't forget me" and I let them go.

Dumb.  I knew then that flaking was a high probability.  That's the nature of night game, and I knew this to be highly likely this evening as a lot of people drank extra heavily for the St Patty celebration.  She ended up not responding to the texts.  She might have punched in the wrong phone number or just forgotten me.

The right move:

I should have been more persistent in going with them.  I could have told her that it was fine that the friend didn't like the Indian guy.  I should have pressed them to get food and said that we were just gonna hang out.  Clearly, I had to press a little more than I did.  

Still, I felt great that I had finally kissed a girl again, and things seemed to finally be moving in the right direction.  

Breakthroughs: ATL & Nashville: You are really good with girls

There were many cool stories that I should have written about here.  I'll try to make a quick summary of some key events that helped me get back.  As mentioned in my last post, working out again, and halting the fat gain was a start.  Next, I got motivated by the Jake's Deli contest.  I had let my eating skills deteriorate as well and having a contest coming up helped motivate me to get things on track.

Free trip to ATL:
My close friend had talked about how he was going to go to Atlanta GA for training.  He had mentioned doing this in November and then nothing came of it so I had forgotten about it.  Suddenly, I checked my phone and found a text asking me if I wanted to go along on the trip.  I could stay in the room for free, and unlike the Minnesota training trip, I didn't even need to get out to Atlanta as he was renting a vehicle and driving down, so that was free as well.

It's funny that I debated if I should go or not, but I knew that getting somewhere warm and just getting out of the house and away from my computer would help me out.  Furthermore, there was a Pho challenge that awarded a gift card, and I had the possibility of trying a paid partner pizza challenge as well.

I got warmed up by going out the Friday and Saturday before.  That Saturday was a crazy night in that a bunch of random events happened.  For example, my promoter friend got two girls to come in a cab with us to the Mid, but one girl got in and the rest of us couldn't.  The remaining girl took off in a taxi. In retrospect, I see that the move was to go with her then or to try to go grab food with her when it was clear we wouldn't get in.  Then, some girls we had talked to early pulled up, and my promoter friend told them it was no good inside, so we hopped in.  We went back to Sound Bar, and the girls were gonna pay $20 each to get in with 50 minutes left, but they were short like 10 dollars.  I told them to forget it and just come grab food but they insisted on arguing to try to get in.  

I literally had to leave for the trip in an hour, so I drove home and finished packing.

ATL RSD guys:
I met up with a guy who I guess goes out every night in Atlanta and posts on the RSD forums where he's going.  There were three guys I met over two days in this crew and I have to say that all three were sociable, and more importantly, they were all trying.  This included an apparent new guy who met up with the group for the first time.

Last night in ATL:
I started off being the second person to complete this Pho challenge.  The prize was a free meal and a $100 gift card, but some girls we were talking to next to us offered to buy the remainder of the gift card ($65).  I used $35 of it to pay for my friends drinks.  I facebook closed this cute girl we were talking to next to us.  We both tried to get the two girls to come out with us after the food challenge, but they had to work the next day and we were unsuccessful.  The next day, my friend said that my target had said something like, "I'm 40 years old... too old to be staying out really late on a work night."

I was shocked.  I would have sworn she was younger than me.  I looked through her facebook pics and I could see how she could be 40, but she looks spectacular for that age.  It seems that she's into fitness as I saw several pictures of her hiking and running races, though later she told me she wasn't that into running.  I'm still in contact with her.  She has a BF but I think if I do go back out there, I'd have a decent change of closing it if I can get her to meet up with me.

Earlier in the night, my friend had opened this wild, tall girl at the Coca Cola factory.  I just remember thinking "Wow, this isn't that hard to just be out and open sets."  I still think I need to just spend a night out here in Chicago and just do the same thing.

After the food challenge, we met up with the ATL crew.  We started at a college bar with some college freshman.  We all felt a bit uncomfortable: some because of the age difference, though I was the 2nd oldest and it didn't really bother me.  What made it hard, was that it was early, so people hadn't gotten drunk, and the sets were just massive groups where everyone knew each other.  A contributing factor of difficulty for me was there were a lot of Asian and South Asian girls.  I'm not as into them and I'm more motivated to open white girls.

I proved this went we went to the Hip Hop club across the street.  I immediately opened this cude blonde from Europe and was really talking to her man-to-woman instead of standing 3 feet away like I did the previous night.

Later, II kept grinding and trying to make out with this chubby girl at this hip hop club.  It was weird with her in that it seemed like she let me kiss her, but she wasn't really into it and wasn't reciprocating.  Still, that was a huge step for me.  I was sober that whole night as well, yet I was opening strong and making moves.

Nashville Polish girl:
The next night we got a late start in Nashville.  I had an interesting confrontation with some insecure drunk guy.  Normally, I'd spent a ton of time writing about the incident.  It was just interesting that it happened with my childhood friend there as we had been discussing how I handle confrontations at the bar on the drive down.  He actually got to see how I handle it.

More importantly, my friend opened this Spanish girl who was with a Polish friend.  I was getting along well with the Polish girl but she said early on that she had a boyfriend.  They later left.

Fate would have it that we ran into them at the second venue.  I guess it made sense as it was the only one on the block without the typical honky tonk (that's what the bars on that strip are colled) live music (mostly country).  This club was playing regular club dance music.  I saw my girl and immediately opened her and started dancing by her and the Spanish girl.

It turns out that if I had gone for the Spanish girl, I might have gotten laid.  She was high buying temperature and starting making out with some guy that danced with her.  I was focused on the Polish girl.  I knew she had a boyfriend but I thought it didn't matter.  Ultimately, I wasn't skilled enough to get her to forget about her man, but I got a spectacular set of compliments that really felt was a breakthrough.

"You are really good with girls."
She liked me, but she was committed to her boyfriend and I just wasn't skilled enough to make her get past though.  (It's possible she just was that committed but I'd like to think that if I had guru level game, maybe I could have pulled her). Regardless, I gained confidence form the set.  She kept giggling at everything I was saying.

I remember her smiling and saying at one point, "You are really funny!."  She then followed with, "You are really good with girls."

In summary, I actually made myself really try to escalate in some sets, and this was a big breakthrough.  Obviously, it was the extreme opposite of how I was Feb 13th, but it was a big step towards where I was at the end of the summer.

Back in the hole

It's been awhile.  I had a great 2014 and I really thought I'd never screw up again.  I thought I'd never quit working out, for one thing.  I planned on going out regularly.  Instead, I ran out of energy from travelling too much, and allowed myself to get addicted to World of Warcraft.  I also think/worry that I could have the type of bipolar disorder that has less severe mania.  I've thought that for years, but my fitness guru Lyle McDonald posted that he finally accepted it and got treatment this past January.

Lyle sent an "Apology to the Internet" through his mailing list, and of course on his site bodyrecomposition.com  Listening to him having to start over with working out and bringing himself out of a depression helped me get started one things as well.  I started working out again and it's been a slow road.  Late last year, I could run 20 miles easily, and I struggled to run 4-5 miles coming back.  That was frustrating but at least I started then as opposed to waiting until 1-3 miles was tough.  I've been slow to return to lifting.

Just this week, I got sick which is going to hurt my progress but at least I've turned things around on some level.

Feb 13th:
That's the day I returned to sarging after a several month absence and I knew it was gonna be rough since I was also coming out of just playing WoW and never really leaving the house.  Asian Cousin happened to come in town that weekend and I went out with him and with Seagull.  It was rough, but to my credit, I tried opening a few times.

Most of the time, I was just wandering around, feeling sorry for how far I had let myself sink.  A few times, I remembered not even wanting to go wing and I remember getting into sets and not knowing what to say.  In some ways, it was more brutal than when I was a newbie because I could contrast this with how things were just started to pick up when I quit last year.

Feb 13th wasn't as bad in retrospect, but it was enough that I was motivated to go out the next day, even though Asian Cousin text me, and so did my promoter friend.