Hard Sets are Fun

Last night was the beginning of a new era - I went back to pushing myself again. I even went out with one of my old-school wings. We used to have an awesome time competing to see who could open the most sets when we went out. We both made a lot of progress in those first couple of months. Then he took a break, and I sort of floundered. 

Prelude

I really wasn't going to go out, but then he texted me. I figured that, if we were going to go out, there are only about 2 venues in Boston that are decent on a Wednesday night. One of them is not incredibly far from where I live. So we met up - we agreed to leave home about 9 (my wing probably lives 10-15 minutes further on the T than I do). I showed up at about 9:40, and the venue was completely empty. A few guys were there, and maybe one couple (who was clearly together). A big group of girls rolls in, and I didn't open them. I figured that I would do it later, when my wing showed up. That was a chode out - a few of the girls were pretty cute.

My wing shows up at about 10. Turns out that he has met one of the girls in the big set before. We set goals - mine is to open 5 and isolate twice (this is a small venue, so 10 was probably high). He casually starts talking to the girl next to him (part of the big set), and the girl he has met before soon comes over and takes her place. 

Warming Up

My wing is out of commission, so I figure that no time like the present to start opening sets (I had halfway thought about going out solo). I go over, and open a three-set. I use my usual opener, and then transition into a short story. When I deliver my opener, I get a comment along that lines of "that's forward" - I shrug it off and plow through it. The set doesn't really hook, but two of the three girls seem interested. They are asking questions and in general acting interested. Unfortunately, the cute one is being an ice queen. I talk to the other girls a bit (attempt some cold reading), but try to get her interested (I'm kinoing her the most and giving her more attention). She isn't giving me anything. After a while, I eject. Should have stayed in the set for longer and plowed, or better yet, started talking to the friend and then pulled her back in. I also needed to move around more and tease more (a well-placed neg might have done wonders there).

Second open of the night is technically a two-set, although her friend is occupied by a guy. I flub the opener a bit (she can't hear me at first, and then I don't really tell the story right). I plow for a few minutes, but she is really distant. After a while, she tells me that her boyfriend is over "there" (points behind me), so she doesn't want to strike up anything. He was either the guy standing behind the bar who didn't talk to her all night, or made up. It doesn't matter

I open another two-set at the bar. I'm practicing working groups, so I attempt to talk to both girls (even though one is probably a 6 and the other is a 7.5 or 8). Turns out that the cute one goes to school at the same place I do. I talk to them both, although the less cute one is getting more engaged. They sit down, so I sit down next to them (sittting down could have been a subtle brush-off, but I decided that I didn't care, especially because they sat down right next to the bar). I sat next to the one I had been talking to - this made it difficult to engage her friend as well (I would have had to get between them, which is probably worth a try). After a while, her friend gets bored, so they go off somewhere else. I should have kept the cute friend occupied.

At this point, my wing has been in set for about 40 minutes. I figure that he isn't going to pull that one and probably wants to be rescued, so I go in. He gets the number and ejects. 

My Namesake

I see a set on the other side of the place, and decide to go in. They didn't seem that cute from afar, but I didn't see any other open sets. I go in with the normal shit, and hook pretty quickly. Turns out that one of the girls is pretty cute. My wing comes in after a few minutes, and takes the friend. I start escalating pretty quickly (kinoing more is starting to pay off) - there is clearly interest (she's kinoing me as much as I kino her). The strangest thing is that she has the same name as me (yeah, who would think that there is a girl named "Frame" out there ;-).

But they are near the door, and soon they leave (they had somewhere else to go for). I should have gotten the number, but gaming a girl with the same name as me seems kind of strange.

At this point, I have one set left to hit my goal. My wing starts talking about bouncing. It's like 11:30, and I don't want to stay out too late. My wing opens a mixed 2-set, and asks whether there are any good venues around there. The girl doesn't know, but the set opens. The guy leaves, but after a while he comes back.

The Hard Set

So my wing says, "do you want a hard set?" I reply that I'm game. He points out a mixed 3-set with two guys and a girl. I figure that there is nothing to lose, even though the guys are a lot bigger than me. The girl is smoking hot (at least an 8, probably more like 8.5). I feel really awkward delivering my standard opener, but I do it anyways. I try to be nice to the guys at first, and then transition to the girl. I never figure out the relationship between them - one guy is Bosnian, and the other is local (I think). She is pretty receptive - turns out that she's here from Spain to learn English. She speaks English pretty well for only spending 7 months here. It seems to be going pretty well - I'm kinoing a lot, and she seems comfortable. She is leaning into me so much that her breast is rubbing against my arm. I touch it a bit, although more incidentally than overtly. She doesn't seem to mind. After a while, she asks me where the bathroom is, and goes to the bathroom.

At this point, I chode out, and go back to my wing. The idea of being alone with the guys kind of scares me. I also had an intuition that they were looking at me sort of menacingly - this was just my mind making excuses. I need to get over this. Another set where I should have either gone for the number when she went off or waited around, reengaged, and escalated. But overall it was pretty strong.

We head home. I think that the night was fairly successful. No real results, but some of the sets went pretty well. I was feeling good when I went out, and I stayed fairly strong all night. I think that I just need to be a bit more forward.