Abraxas' Game Journal
07-25-2010, 01:21 AM
I hath returned! First off, I will tell you that I did end up deviating from my plan that I had outlined earlier. Somewhat. I did not open any mixed sets and I did eject after delivering my opener. After my first set, I decided that, having done only a meager handful of approaches so far this year, I would dedicate this night to desensitizing myself to the process of approaching and opening.
Tonight's field location was the downtown area of one of my state's more "hip" communities. It's a great location for sarging as there is one main strip with several different bars and clubs, all of which are insanely target rich on any weekend night. I opened 10 sets altogether, each of which I will now attempt to describe to the best of my memory.
I decided to stick with one opener for the evening, which I lifted from the Love Systems Routines Manual. It is an opinion opener, which is delivered as follows:
"Hey guys, how do you tell someone that you're not interested without hurting their feelings?"
(They respond)
"Okay, check this out. I'm meeting up with some friends here shortly, and my friend Mindy is trying to set me up with her friend. She's cute and everything, but not really my type. What should I say?"
I really dig this opener as it insinuates preselection and the fact that as a man of abundance, beauty alone is insufficient for securing my time and attention.
#1 - I enter the bar and immediately spot a seated 4 set. There is one empty chair. I walk around to the right side of the table, slowly turn so that I am facing them at a 45 degree angle, and deliver the opener. In the middle of my delivery, the occupant of the empty fifth seat returns, smiling in my direction as she sits down. In fact, most of the girls at the table (who ranged from decently attractive to slightly too chubby for serious consideration) seemed amused by the opener from what I could tell. However, only the girl closest to where I was standing gives a response, which I can't remember at the moment. I thank her for her input and eject.
#2 - Back outside, a set of 4 young and very sexy Latin girls come up on me from behind. I slowly turn to the left. "Hey guys, real quick, maybe you can help me with something." One of them says, "Yeah... we don't speak English." In retrospect, this would've been a perfect moment to deliver "Let me guess, you guys are from the Dominican Republic" or some variation of that infamous line. Instead, I said "You sound pretty fluent to me." The girl in the back of the pack, who also happened to be the hottest out of all of them, did walk with me and allow me to deliver the opener in its entirety. I can't remember what her suggestion was, but her friend up in front of us shouted back "You should text her and tell her to eat a dick!!!" I think she was pretty drunk. I politely bid them adieu and continued on down the sidewalk.
#3 - A moving 3 set of what appear to be Chaldean women are walking towards me. I turn to them as they pass and say "Hey guys, real quick, I need your opinion on something. The girl in the front of the group, who was clearly the alpha female in this pack, simply looked at me and said "no." Her and her friends continued walking... and giggling.
#4 - I spot a 3 set with their backs turned to me. I gracefully walk around them and do a slight twist so that I am facing them at a 45 degree angle. Much to my surprise, one of them is a much older woman, who I assume is the mother of the two (hot) young girls she has with her. I deliver my opener anyway (in fact, I aspire to someday master the art of the mother/daughter and grandmother/granddaughter type sets that I occasionally see). They gave me their opinions which I can't remember, and I told them I would "take it into consideration," before politely ejecting.
#5 - On a sidewalk which leads from the main strip to a bar that is sort of hidden back behind all of the other establishments, I encounter 3 very pleasing (in their demeanor and aesthetic) young women. I deliver my opener, and they're totally into it, trying to be genuinely helpful. There was one girl in this set that I found myself very attracted to. However, I allowed us to go our separate ways after the opener had run its course, which is my only regret of the evening. Next time (tomorrow night), I will be prepared.
#6 - I enter a popular diner/rooftop bar. I nonchalantly approach a seated two set, turn to them at a 45 degree angle (natch), and deliver the opener. They both get really into it. The girl on my left (who was such a fucking hottie) said "you should tell her something terrible about yourself, like that you kill puppies." I told her that I liked her style and that I would take that into consideration. If I could do this set over again, I would've pushed it harder since I was clearly getting IOIs, but at that point I had resigned myself to the fact that this night was going to consist entirely of approaches and nothing more.
#7 - I leave the bar and once again find myself outside on the sidewalk. I spot a 2 set walking in my direction with a sense of purpose. I turned towards them and begin to deliver my opener. They slow down slightly, but look apprehensive and as if they don't want to be bothered. Suddenly, a guy walking up from behind me yells out "Erin!" and the girls get excited and look at me in a way that indicates that they want to go mingle with their friend who they had been walking towards the entire time (hence their purposeful look). I say "I'll let you go talk with your friend. One of the girls looks at me sympathetically and says "thanks." We go our separate ways.
#8 - Shortly afterwards, in the same location, I encounter a moving 3 set preparing to cross the road. I face them at a 45 degree angle and say "Real quick, I need some female perspective." They didn't even stop and as I watched them walk away, the girl in front says "yeah.... we're busy."
#9 - Same location. I'm walking towards the bar and there are two reasonably chunky women directly in front of me. This was the one instance in which I deviated from my opener all night. I said "Don't worry, I'm not following you. We're just walking in the same direction (credit: Cajun)." They turned around and both started cracking up, saying "we didn't even see you!" They were not only fat, but much older than I had suspected as well. Fortunately, they turned and started heading for a venue in another direction.
#10 - My final set of the night, and probably the most interesting. There were two girls sitting on a ledge outside the bar. I crossed the street so that I could approach them, though it was obvious they were having a deep conversation. I approached, turned toward them at a 45 degree angle and delivered my opener. Both of these girls, one of whom was a 7 and the other possibly an 8 (despite her short hair!) seemed particularly intrigued by my imaginary dilemna. The 8 asked "how old is she?" and I said "well..." trying to quickly think of what age I wanted my imaginary date to be. She interrupted and asked "is this for real or are you just trying to like pick us up or something?" I said "Why would you think that?" And she said "well, some guys do that." "With this line?" I asked. She then said, "no, I can tell you're for real." She then proceeded to give me ideas on how to let my imaginary date down easily. There were a few indicators that HB8 was into me, though you might not pick up on that from the pieces of our conversation I have transcribed here.
All in all, I feel really good about my experience in the field tonight. I will say this: this game is hard, fellas. There's no way around that. I completely agree with Mystery's hypothesis that approach anxiety is genetically hardwired into our being. However, I consider this is a blessing rather than a curse. As others have pointed out, if this shit didn't take hard work, dedication, and eventual ego death, every guy would be pulling girls with consistency, but we all know that isn't the case.
At the same time, I can see myself easily getting addicted to this lifestyle. After the first 4 or 5 sets, approach anxiety begins to feel almost like a "rush" or a "high." I love it. I'm planning on going out to a hot local club tomorrow night and doing the same thing I did tonight, except rather than ejecting after the opener, I will deliver an opener and then use a piece of transition material (cold read, routine, etc.) I'm just going to keep systematically building up my skill set, until I've eventually mastered every step from beginning to end.