Field Report #8 December 21st, 2007

Location: Christmas party, Lower Haight, San Francisco
Objective: F Close
Outcome: F Close, but not as a result of any game

Entered party and got introduced. Sat with a few HBs and some guys, chatted away. Threw in a few negs to some of the HBs, gets good response.

HB9 walks in and my friend doesn't introduce since he can't remember her name. She goes into kitchen, I go in a minute later to refill my glass. I tell myself I'm going to limit myself to one glass of champagne (but it doesn't quite work out like that). I start using pivots. Get talking to a Tunisian guy who's talking to a HB8, that opens me with HB8. Later I see HB9 coming back in to the kitchen from another room, so I 'accidentally' meet her in a narrow passage where I neg her about the hat she's wearing, ask if i can try it on, goof around for a while, get her name, use that to open a conversation thread about someone on the radio with the same name.

Then the gift exchange part of the party begins, I position myself beside a HB8.5 (who looks a lot like HB9 and had given me an IOI before) so I get her name and start talking to her. Turns out HB8.5 and HB9 are sisters. I said that I had guessed that, she asks why. "Because you're both beautiful" I say, with a wry smile.

This is a method I use sometimes, I go really overboard with compliments and hopefully imply that I'm being sarcastic, turning it into a cloaked neg. I don't think it quite worked here though because she took the compliment at face value and thanked me.

Later there was this HB6 staggering in with her BF holding her up. I thought I'd try to game her a little just for fun, but she turns really obnoxious by bringing up inappropriate stuff. I see it as a chance to practice dealing with shit tests. And boy was she shit-testing! I practiced what I saw in a video of Mystery in the field, I just refused to play her games, refused to answer her questions. It drove her insane! She was testing my Irishness, bringing up Irish political stuff, demanding to know why I wasn't answering her questions, and then implied that I was in the country illegally! I could have told her that I happen to be 100% legal but I didn't even give her that much satisfaction.

The argument got quite heated on her side, I just laughed at her, didn't take her seriously, and I noticed that there was an audience watching this. People had stopped their own conversations to watch what was going on. It turns out that my handling of this gave me tons of social proof because she was making a total dick of herself.

She ended up being hauled out by her BF and the party host and given a stern lecture. People came over to me shaking my hand, saying that she was a weirdo anyway, that she was waaay too drunk, and that most guys would have lost their temper and gotten all beligerent about it. It was around about this time that I opened with a young HB10 by getting into the circle of seats and started chatting to her HB6 sister. YHB10 eventually mentioned her BF, apparently he had been at the party before I arrived.

HB9, and her HB8.5 sister left soon after, and I number closed HB9 before she left. She said that we could connect through the party host, but I decided to push it a little bit more and get the number, which I duly got.

HB6 was wasted, I walked her home, and F-closed her. It wasn't difficult, I just heard her mention that I was sexy, so I thought 'what the hell?'

Conclusion: The f-close was nice to get, but it wasn't the result of any 'game' as such. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I follow up on HB9. I've resisted the urge to break the 1-day rule like I did last time, and I've resolved to allow 2 days before calling.

Despite the compliments I got for my handling of the shit-tests, I still think I could have handled it better. Her BF was very gracious, almost apologetic for her. Maybe drink takes people to a point where no amount of game is going to make them civil, but I think an MPUA might have been able to close that at least on positive terms.

I talked to all HBs at this party, including the ones that were taken and even a lesbian couple. It builds social proof and keeps the wheels of conversation lubricated. I got some DHVs in through mentioning that I coach one of the party hosts on his sports team.

I had three glasses of champagne and got a little bit buzzed, but lost most of the next day to sleep. I wasn't hungover, just exhausted. I hope the sex accounted for a lot of that.

I also think that parties are a dream come true since it's so easy to open and get social proof. I plan to start hosting parties in my own apartment next year.

So this was my first conscious use of pivots and my first attempt to handle shit tests. I think I've moved beyond the intro-practice-only stage.