So, I wasn’t expecting to do a field report today, but I had an interesting encounter that I think is worth sharing.

I’m taking a writing class and today I arrived before anyone showed up. I was chilling in a seat with my laptop when HB9 walks in--a girl I’ve had my eye on since day one. She sits directly across from me (the classroom is set up conference table style) and asks me something about the reading assignment. I noticed that I had just been opened by this gorgeous girl and tried to get my wits about me to engage using Game material. I kept on the opener for about a minute then I asked her if she was graduating (she is) and what she plans to do. She told me about her fashion journalism goals and then asked me about myself in a similar fashion. I told her I was graduating and saving to take an extended trip to Europe. We started talking about travel (she had done Europe for two months over the summer) and I attempt a DHV by talking about a year I took off from school to live/work/travel in Australia. We talk back and forth (though I’m letting her do the large majority of the sharing) as the rest of the class files in. HB7 sits down next to me and picks up on the conversation and tells me that she did two weeks in Europe over the summer and that she had a two day layover in Iceland and that I should go there. HB7 seems very high energy and HB9 is not able to get a word in edgewise. So I take this as an opportunity to allow the HB7 to take over the convo by asking her questions (hopefully creating jealousy in HB9). HB7 says she has pics on Facebook, I open up to it on my laptop, send a friend request and she whips out her phone to accept it. We pore over the pics until class begins.

During the class break I did not interact with anyone.

After class was over I timed my exit so that I was directly in front of HB9 as we leave class. I continue to walk as I speak to her over my shoulder, and ask her about what she plans to do with fashion journalism. We stop at the bottom of the stairs as there are now two ways to go. We talk for a bit until I ask which way she is going. She is going my way so I start to walk in that direction and she follows. We continue to talk until we reach another fork. There I say I am going to the Fine Arts Building to meet up with some friends. We continue to talk (now we are back on travel). I check my phone as if I am receiving a call/txt, and say I need to leave to meet up with my friends, but that I’d love to talk to her about Europe some more. She then offers up her phone number. I take her name (for Facebook), and her e-mail (don’t know what happened to getting the phone number, but whatevs). I give her my name and tell her to find me on Facebook. We then part ways.

Okay, so, the sticking points:

1) I could NOT figure out how to neg this girl. She had on very plain clothes—white button up, blue jeans, brown boots. Nothing remarkable about the hair or nails. And though she had really gorgeous (I mean GORGEOUS) eyes, I figured it would be too AFC to mention them, plus it seemed out of context. I remember getting one in later when she mentioned something kinda dumb about her Euro trip, but that’s all.

2) I had a hard time kino-ing. We sat far across from each other. So impossible during the class. Afterwards I was walking in front of her, and then the way I stopped and positioned myself I placed too much space between us to kino. I know that it was my fault for setting up the situation where I could not kino, but my question is, if you accidentally set up a situation where you can’t kino, and this becomes the “norm” of this encounter, how do you non-awkwardly move closer in order to kino? Like, I establish a non-touching environment, how do I change that without being obvious?

3) I have a lot of trouble reading body language. I’m good at reading faces, voice, and language, but not bodies. I’ve gotten a bit better after reading books, talking to some friends who are naturals at it, and then observing in field. Problem: it was cold inside and outside. She had her arms crossed because of this, and her whole upper body was closed off. This was due to the cold, but it basically killed an entire area of potential BL investigation. I noticed that she was rocking a bit on her hips, but I couldn’t be sure if it was due to the cold or if it was an IOI. And, one other thing she kept crossing her legs at the ankles. Does that mean anything??

4) Just couldn’t figure out if I was getting IOIs. She played with her hair at least once that I took notice of, she kept asking me questions, and she was quick to offer me her contact info. So I guess that’s IOIs. It’s jut weird that we’ve been in class for like six weeks now and never talked except today.

5) If she doesn’t FB friend me by tomorrow, should I just go ahead and do it myself? Her not friending me (if that happens) could either be an IOD or she could have just lost the paper I wrote it on. So, yeah, how to handle the next communication?

That’s all for this one. Any thoughts on the field report, especially the sticking points would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Talon

_________________
If the dream is won
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the cost.
-Rush