Day 16

Today was the vaunted GSF. Patch did a great job setting it up - we went to a new mall venue in the suburbs (I'm actually going to be working near there pretty soon, so it was a good opportunity to check out the place).

Patch and Hoth Cool and I drove out to the mall, and met up with the other guys from the lair. We paired off with our mentors - I was paired with Shadowfox, who I have sarged with a bunch of times. The guy is fearless.

One of the things I neglected to mention in yesterday's FR is that Shadowfox pulled a girl off the street for a SNL the night before, so he was still recovering (hung over and not too much sleep). Fortunately, I didn't need all that much encouraging, so we were off.

The first stop was the Apple store. I saw a girl checking her email, so I asked her about it. The convo hooked, and we probably talked for ten minutes or so. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't interested (not attractive enough), so it didn't go anywhere.

Next, I saw a cute girl checking out ipod accessories. I asked her whether she was a runner, and she said yes. Her last iPod had been stolen, and she was replacing it. A minute or two in, she let on that she was 16 or 17, which pretty much killed things (I'm not interested in JB, although she looked more like 20 than 16).

We decided to try Sephora. I opened by asking a girl whether you are allowed to wear eyeliner if you aren't in a rock band. She said, no, unless you live in California. She said that she knows some guys who live in California who wear eyeliner. It was actually going ok, but the salesperson came back with a product she was looking for, which killed the set (I don't deal well with distractions).

There wasn't much else of note. I opened a few more sets, but nothing really hooked. Shadowfox wasn't really pushing me, and I don't really have any AA, so I don't think I improved much. I think that I should have worked more on moving game and hired gun game (both of these are pretty scary to me).

After a while, we regrouped and I got a ride home.
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At about ten PM, I took the T to the normal saturday night venue. This was so early that it didn't even look like a club/bar. More like a restaurant (which is what it is during the day).

On the T over, I tried to open a 3-set and a 2-set. The 3-set didn't open very smoothly. I was standing up, and the target was sitting, flanked by her UG friends. I opened by saying something about St Patrick's day, and managed to keep the convo going, but it kept dying. Mostly I was talking to the UG friend, and I clearly wasn't interested in her. In hindsight, I should have sat down and talked to the target.

I used another St Patrick's situational opener on the 2-set, which opened, but I didn't do all that well. Opening 2-sets on the subway is much harder than opening solo girls.

In the venue, I opened some HB9s, and talked to them for a little while. They blew me off by going upstairs. Not sure what I did wrong - I think that I'm just not at the point where I can hold 9s yet.

I went upstairs (why not), and opened some girls by the bar. They weren't that cute (probably 5s), but I was warming up, so what the heck. The set went ok, but then their biznatch UG friend came in and said something about how I should buy drinks for her and her friends. I said that I don't do that, and she blew me out.

I also opened a 2-set by the bar. I asked them whether pinching someone wearing green would make them turn into a leprechaun (I don't know where the fuck some of the shit I say comes from), and they said that they weren't wearing any green. I kind of blew out that set, or at least I thought so, so I ejected.

By that point, some of the regular crowd had shown up (ae82power, absolute beirut, maximus testicles), and we noticed that there was a bootcamp going on (saffron and entropy). I approached a 2-set consisting of a cute girl with curly hair and an Asian cougar. I opened by asking the girl whether she was Irish (no, she is actually Jewish) and then ignored the cougar (probably a bad move because she didn't seem to like me). The set seemed to be decent (no super-strong rapport, but we had a good convo going and I was kinoing and receiving some in return). The cougar tried to drag her off to the bathroom, but she stayed and talked to me for a few more minutes. When the cougar came back, she managed to drag her away. I noticed that the target started to lose interest at the very end, but that could have been because the cougar was drawing her attention. I should have number closed, but choded out. I really needed a wing to occupy the cougar while I gamed her friend.

I then opened another 2-set, and stayed in that one for a while (turns out that the target has a PhD in a field similar to what I'm studying right now). The set was going great - ae82power came in and winged, and absolute beirut showed up with some of his friends. After a while the target went to the bar for drinks, and was gone for a long time. I chatted with absolute beirut's friend, and the obstacle. The target came back after a while, and it turned out that she had been talking to one of the bootcamp students, who fled when he saw the mixed set. I chatted her up for a while, and then decided to try to number close. She told me that she was currently in the midst of a messy breakup, so I gave her my number. I'm not completely sure that I buy that - maybe I did something wrong along the way (although the set seemed solid to me).

I opened another 3-set because I saw a cute girl with neat glasses. Turns out that she only was wearing them because she is getting Lasik, but the set opened pretty well. At some point, I realized that we were talking across her friends, and that they were uncomfortable, so I rearranged the set to make us more comfortable. A few minutes later, she let on that she had a boyfriend (I mentioned that I was interested in startups, and she said that her boyfriend is doing one with a professor at my school). A guy showed up a minute or two later, and she hugged and kissed him. I ejected, but she gave me pretty strong kino when I said goodbye, so she was clearly interested. I have a talent for hitting it off with chicks who are taken.

Following this, we bounced to another venue. No one was in the mood to game (ae82power was feeling sick and low energy), so I chatted up absolute beirut's friend (they had bounced there as well). I number closed her and walked home.

Let's see - I will give myself seven points for today. 35 in total, although I could have more if I were more generous.