| The following is a detailed account of my recent gaming endeavors this past Friday. In order to make it easier on would-be advisers, I'll try to be as specific as possible, as I've noticed a clear trend to that end. Additionally, I hope my story-telling abilities will make this worth a read outside of general information-gathering for other AFCs like myself, and I thank in advance anyone who offers their constructive criticism.
Anyways, enough with the chatter...
So my friend was having a house party at his place on Friday night. There was around twenty or so people at this event, and among them was an HB7-8 that my friend loudly introduced as "Tits Mcgee," as he faced off against her in a game of beer pong. (For those of you who don't know, beer pong is a drinking game where people through ping pong balls into cups filled with some sort of alcohol, thereby forcing the other team to drink.) She reacted in mock-outrage, but her loud giggle proclaimed that she was plenty fine with the not-so-flattering moniker, as it was a veritable referral to her more attractive upper-body endowments.
At the moment, there were only five people including myself in my friend's basement: my friend, two dudes, and the HB, all of whom I approached with a smile and a handshake as I introduced myself. After that, I moved towards a stationary exercise bike, took a seat with one leg splayed over a handle bar, and began making comments about the (drinking) game. It turns out that the HB was actually pretty good at beer pong, and I was quick to neg her about it.
"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a girl this good at beer pong," I said, directing my comment towards her partner. I noted that the HB smiled at this out of my periphery, and the guy remarked, "Yeah, she's not bad."
"The thing is," I added, "I don't really know how I feel about girls like that... it's almost... unattractive, y'know? Like, don't they have anything better to do." Everyone laughed at that, including the HB. So far so good. I attempted to control the SPAM by asking everyone how they knew each other, and other pointless fluff. It turns out that the HB's partner was a decent golfer, so I talked to him about my cousin who intends to turn pro and had the privilege of playing 9 holes with Tiger Woods. I'd like to say that this was an excellent DHV gambit, but it looked like the girl was more concerned with her cell phone than my cousin's Tiger Woods experience.
For maybe the next half hour, we talked more fluff without much in the way of new developments, and then I discovered that the HB was from Cincinatti, Ohio. "Really?" I asked. "Have you ever been to the huge pro tennis tournament they have there in the summer?"
"Yes!" she replied enthusiastically. "I go there every summer; it's the best!" I asked her who her favorite tennis player was, and she said Nadal, a player famed for his tenacity and intensity. "You would like Nadal," I said. "You're so into everything... even freaking beer pong!" I was referring to the game at hand, because at this moment, my partner (another friend who had arrived recently) and I were having a tight encounter against the HB and her partner. She giggled at this, but I have to say, any more description of my negging would be repetitive to the point of boredom.
I proceeded to have a fun night playing pong and talking to friends I hadn't seen in a while, but after some time I found myself sitting with the HB and an acquaintance of hers -- my competition. I took a seat such that the HB was between us, and asked, "Hey, pick a number 1 through 10, but don't tell me what it is."
"Okay..." she said, and I asked her if it was seven.
"No," she said. "It was 3!"
(Funnily enough, this number game has about a 20% success rate for me.)
"Really?" I scrambled to recover. "Well you must be a think outside of the box type of person, because I learned in a Psychology class that about 70% choose 7!"
"Wow, you took Psychology? I'm really interested in that kind of stuff." I immediately dived into the Cube routine, promising her deep philosophical insights from a game I had learned in class. I took her hands into mine, brushed my thumbs lightly over the tops, and gazed earnestly into her eyes, saying: "Now this game only works if you are 100% honest about all of these questions. Try to relax and let your mind go free." She nodded vigorously. "Also, it helps to be a little hammered," I quipped, eliciting another laugh. She was smiling and giggling quite a bit, but it could have been a mixture of alcohol and a naturally sunny personality; also, I got in some good kino with the hands part.
Her responses:
Cube: size of a dice, fuzzy, and blue.
Ladder: partially inside of cube, four rungs.
Flowers: 10... red tulips.
Horse: Big and white.
Storm: Regular sized, about 100 yards to the left.
Somewhere in the middle, my competition walked away; I suppose he was bored, and it was clear I had the HB's attention.
My responses:
Cube: "Because it's small, you're humble; my cube was the size of a mountain. Because it's fuzzy, you have a soft personality. People like you because you're really nice, and not thorny. And because it's blue, you have big dreams. Y'know, blue like the sky." She was responding positively.
Ladder: "Your ladders are your friends. Since you have four rungs, it means you have four friends." She protested that she definitely had more than four, and I replied, "But you also said that the ladder went inside the cube... this means that your four friends are a huge part of your life. Would you say that's true?" She thought about it seriously, and responded that yes, she thought so.
Flowers: "Now flowers are meant to be kids... you have ten of them, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll have ten kids. Since they're red, it means you're passionate about these ten children, so maybe in the future you'll mean a lot to them." This was a huge bust, and I gotta say that it is most of the time. People tend to pick a big number of flowers... I hurried along to the next part.
Horse: "The horse is your lover, and since you said he was big and white... he'll be strong, not necessarily big. He'll take care of you, and the fact that he's white represents nobility." This one worked out great; she ate it right up, smiling and laughing the whole time.
Storm: "The storm represents your problems... since it was 100 yards to the left, it means that problems are looming... I'm sorry, is something on your mind?" She replied that she just broke up with her boyfriend, and although she wasn't mad about it now, she admitted that perhaps it would be a problem later. I put my hand on her shoulder and comforted her with a little squeeze and a forgettable expression of condolence.
Then I dodged the topic and asked her if she liked the Cube, to which she responded enthusiastically: "You're like my therapist. I'll call you 'Doctor'." I didn't like the idea of being her therapist, but the fact that she gave me a nickname was a plus... I think. As the night wore on, she played more beer pong, and as she played I was actually running the Cube on someone else (not a real prospect though, I was firmly in the LJBF zone with her) when she said, "Doctor, are you playing that game again?" I affirmed her suspicions, and she announced, "You know, I never hook up with my therapists."
I figured this was her bitch-shield or ASD, but I couldn't come up with a good response on the fly, so I ended up responding lamely: "Whoa, whoa, whoa... I never said anything of the sort!" I did give a pretty big grin, but overall, I feel like it could've been played better.
Perhaps a half hour later, she then said she had to go, and so she left with someone who was clearly in the LJBF zone... but not before saying to me, "Doctor, we should have another therapy session sometime."
I responded, "I'd love to, how can we continue it?"
She didn't take the bait. "I don't know, maybe I'll see you at another party."
"O-kaaaay." My tone of voice was light but sarcastic as I tried to number-close, but to my immense frustration, she was not forthcoming.
And that was that. If I were to give myself a self-evaluation, I'd say that my opening game needs work, as does the DHV portion. Specifically, I flounder when it comes to maintaining interest after the original opener, and while I felt like I did a great job with cube routine, any other DHV material was lacking or entirely absent. Anyways, the part that most baffles me is the my complete lack of a any kind of close... admittedly, that would've been a personal record on my part in terms of speed in closing, but I felt like I had done some good things that night. Nevertheless, here I am empty-handed and seeking the wisdom of wiser and more experienced PUAs on the forum; as mentioned earlier, I greatly appreciate any commentary.
Hope the read wasn't too tiresome,
CK
|
CHAT