I want to share my experience that I had today; it was the first time I have ever opened a set on my own. I have opened sets before but I have always had a wing at my back for support. So this is what happened to me, what I learned and how I think I can improve.

Today was the DuPont Circle Snowball Fight, and since none of my friends could make it through the snow drifts to the train, I decided to go by myself and make some new friends. The snowball fight was a ruckus, and I got the chance to meet several interesting people. I accompanied one group of them to one of the only local bars that was open (Front Page for the dc folks that recognize it) and enjoyed some drinks while warming up. I was surprised; the bar was very full for a Saturday afternoon when roads and above-ground public transit is shut down.

I was chatting with the new friends I had made, and a group of girls passed me; one of them made a comment on how awesome my Red Wings sweatshirt was. I said thanks and gave her a high five, and she escaped before I could say anything further. So a few minutes later when my friends had departed I set out to find her (we were in a different room of the bar) and found her and started a conversation. It was the first time I had opened a set by myself, and it hit me like a ton of bricks immediately before I started which made the conversation all the tougher.

I was able to hold her attention for about ten minutes, through a lot of fluff talk and describing what my job is (military). I asked her to introduce me to her friends and I got some basic info from them; after that, I took her to the side to kind of pseudo-isolate. Just to the side since there really wasn't any room to take her any place else. I did the five-lies test on her and she seemed to be into it. After this she and her friends invited me to the downstairs portion of the bar, so I went with them down there. But at this point, she disappeared! Her friends were still there, and they were looking for her for about 15 minutes, but she never showed. I kept some warm discussion with her friends, until I got bored and the set got cold and I bailed.

Hopefully the things that I learned are what a lot of the novices had to when they first started out in this. I found that there were more than a few silences longer than a few seconds. I've read Juggler's material and tried to stick by the 90-10 rule but it was difficult for me to keep coming up with things to discuss. I also found that I understand what some people are talking about when they say that AFC's have a tough time because they don't communicate how they feel about the girl to her directly. I think I did ok in this regard but I should have started much earlier in the conversation. I think I could have provided a bit more opportunities to escalate kino, perhaps by replacing some of the fluff talk early on with some routines that would have increased that aspect.

I don't think she disappeared on purpose because she also left her friends hanging, so I feel moderately successful on this set. It was the only set (predominately female) that I opened all day, and the first that i've ever opened on my own, so it was a great learning experience. Hopefully those of you that read about this can relate to your first time and share some of the feelings and learning experiences you gained from it. Thanks