@Stankwagon What was that good for? This attitude is not welcomed in this community. The guy came here for advice and without any reason you started busting his balls. Get your shit together, bro. We're supposed to be here to help each other, not troll. There's a website called 4chan, I think you would feel like you're home there more than here.
@OP
First, welcome to the community. I'd like to point out that it's not true that the forum doesn't have any "masters". There are a couple of guys here with really solid game, and the sole reason they are still here is to give the community back, what they have received. In other words, help the newbies like you. And now to get to your problem.
Stankwagon, as offensive as his comment was, did make a point. The only way you'll ever come over your approach anxiety is by approaching. First of all though, let me diminish this limiting belief. There are no 5s, no 6s, no 9s, and no 10s. You need only two groups for cathegorizing women. First group: Women I want to get to know. And second group: Women I don't want to get to know. Anything other than this will just make you overthink, put them on pedestals, and ruin your game. At fist, don't try to game them. Just have a casual conversation with them, and you will see that they don't bite. There's nothing to fear. They are just people too. Sometimes nice people, other times not so nice, that's not the point though. You need to learn that beauty is not something that should confuse, or intimidate you, because the goal of your journey is to find real quality women, who are not only beautiful, but are also people who are worthy of your time to be with. And you can only find out about their personalities by talking to them.
I see you've read up a bit on openers and you feel that they sometimes go "off track". The thing with openers is that because every girl is different, it is highly unlikely that you will get the response you expect. That's why you need to approach a lot, to practise. I don't recommend you to use too much canned material, because then you will easily run into the problem of running out of things to say. Something you want to avoid. Even if your opener is planned, you should then focus on genuinely getting to know the person you're talking to. Whether it's a nerdy looking guy, or a beautiful model. Of course you won't flirt with the nerdy guy, lol.
With cute cashiers and things like that, I usually start with an opener like "I want to buy something nice for my sister's birthday. Can you recommend me something?" This is a very easy way to start the conversation because it is casual. It is hard to suggest something to get something prepared to make them laugh. Because best humour is spontanous humour. I suggest you to watch some stand-up comedies and listen to other guys with a good sense of humour. You should focus on trying to catch on not really what they are saying, but rather how they deliver what they are saying because that's what makes it funny most of the time. I will give you a very simple example to help you understand what I'm talking about. This happened a few weeks ago, when I was at the bookstore, searching for an X-mas present for my girlfriend. Of course I can't remember the entire conversation word by word, but I'm trying to recall it as closely as I can.
Quote:
Me: Hello. Can you help me out? I'm looking for a good book for my girlfriend as a christmas present, but I'm quite lost here.
HB: Mmmm What kind of books does she like?
Me: Mostly romance. Quality romance though, so no sparkling vampires or suicidal teens.
HB(already smiling) Does she have a preferred writer?
Me: Well, she certainly does, but I don't remember them, and don't want to ask because it would ruin the surprize.
HB: Okay, we'll see what I can do about that. Here, take a look at this one.
Me: Oh my God! I can't believe you just chose this particular book out of all! (I have never ever seen that book, I just figured this girl is quite bored with helping all the customers all day, so I might make her day)
HB(puzzled): Why?
Me: Funny story. I was at my friend's place last weekend. Our girlfriends went to see the new Hobbit movie so we decided we would spend some bro time with a couple of beers, and sexist comedies. (HB letting out a slight laugh). Basically, we ended up a bit tipsy, and out of the blue my friend brings this book into the room. He told me his girlfriend was reading it. We hit it up at a random page, and the first line that we see is this: "Jane felt a hard thing pressing against her body from behind"(The name Jane, was in the book's title) (HB starts laughing uncontrollably) After about 10 minutes we finally stopped laughing, and decided we would read the whole page. It turned out it was not quite what we first thought, but still it was a good laugh. And it's amazing that you chose this particular book.
HB: haha, it really is.
Anyway, the entire story was some BS I made up there, and I didn't spend much more time with this girl because, well, because I have a girlfriend and I'm loyal. I hope you get the point, though.
I don't know about that Ventura County area though. You should seek the PUA lairs section for something like that. I doubt I live near that, since I live in Hungary.
Good luck, mate! If you need an advice, you can hit me up with a PM, though I won't give you "routines" because I'm strongly against them. I think they are only good for getting laid, but not real progress, and when it comes to relationships, well you won't have an infinite number of routines, so you're pretty much screwed.
Peace,
In$tinct.