Something wicked this way comes... and it's me.

Okay, a pretty chill night. Started the night playing Rockband on a friend's X-Box and have "More Than a Feeling" stuck in my head... could be worse...

Get to the club, the most upscale club in the city. Haven't been there in awhile, but there haven't been more than a handful of truly hot women in any of the clubs I've been to for the past few months. I thought maybe they stopped clubbing now that it's patio season on the strip. Nope, turns out they all went to this club. Wow. Was it good to be surrounded by absolutely gorgeous women again. After the string of girlfriends I've had over the past few years I've been really spoiled. I find myself physically attracted to very few women right now, I only want the best.

Kicking myself for two hot women I didn't approach. It's too bad, because I was attracted to them, but they worked so hard to put themselves directly in my space that each time I was weirded out. I still have a reflex that if people move so close to me that they're practically stealing my air then I'll move over and give myself space. Both times I could tell by the looks on their faces what it was they really wanted. It's a reflex I need to override.

I start the night casually by opening a cute girl. Brief conversation, not much of anything. A lot of girls tend to feel awkward when I talk to them without being attracted to them. It's for this reason I tend to do better with the really hot girls. They don't feel it as a blow to their self-esteem when a high value guy isn't attracted to them; they are intrigued by it.

This is something I've been struggling with. My friends tell me to only talk to the hot girls if the less attractive girls tend to be awkward and blow me out. But I refuse to do this, because sometimes hot girls are scarce and just standing around is social suicide. I want to amass social proof as a reflex, so that means talking to everyone. There must be a way I can bring them up to my level instead of lowering myself to their level. This is the basis of all charisma, after all, but I'm a lazy bastard. It takes work to make people feel they're worth my time.

I go back to my friends, dance a bit, getting IOIs from everyone. See super cute brunette. I open her, challenge her, she loves it. Some joking, some laughing. Her friends leave and she reluctantly follows. She tried to compel me to make her stay, and maybe I should have, but I was feeling lazy tonight. Truly staying on top of all social dynamics is work. She felt a social pressure to stick with her friends and perhaps felt that, at that point in our interaction, it would telegraph too much interest on her part to stay without some effort on my part. Well, I'm sorry, girl, but you didn't get that effort on my part. You'll forgive me, I know. I'm very charming that way.

Go back to my friends, have some fun. I go outside and open a 2-set. Tonight was, apparently, less about game and more about me having fun. I start talking to these girls and quickly said, "You know what? This might be a ridiculous thing for me to say right now, but I don't care. I love kinky sex. Once you've had kinky sex, you have to really love someone to go back to regular sex." The girls love it and I can see the cute one is attracted to me, but at this point she's leaving the field open for her less-than-cute friend who clearly LOVES me. If I wanted the cute one (and maybe I should have done it just for the sake of practice) I should have negged and teased her a few times. Tonight was the equivalent of lying on a beach: I've got to really want something to get up, risk getting sand in my crack, and walk all the way over to get it.

I return to my friends and I see some strippers in high-heeled glass shoes and... mmm... tight, tight leather outfits. My trash-vibe detector goes through the roof! If they were dressed like anyone else I probably wouldn't have cared, but they put on those oh-so-tight outfits just for me! Why disappoint?

I follow them outside and watch for a few minutes as they light up cigarettes and a handful of guys gather around them, shifting nervously but not saying anything.

A hot blonde is trying to get my attention, but... sorry, sweety, I want someone else right now.

I push through the crowd of guys and stroll up to the two strippers (HBTall and HBShorty), "Hey, guys! I don't know who you are, but you're wearing rubber and that makes you interesting."

HBTall: "That was weak, buddy."

Me: "Well, this is who I am and you're going to have to live with it. I make no apologies."

HBTall's eyes go wide and she smiles. I tease them, neg them, lead the convo (important -- otherwise I'd just be a bystander, no matter how attracted they are).

There was a moment that really sticks in my head: HBShorty spits through the fence and I make a face, saying, "Ewwww. Look at it hanging there. It looks like it came from some sort of alien."

HBShorty: "I'm sorry."

This is important to me because... well, I'm not saying it was a test, because it probably wasn't, but my reaction was important. I once saw a girl spit on the ground and the guy talking to her started babbling, "That's so cool! Not many girls spit on the ground!" Well... duh. If she cared about what you thought of her she would absolutely not have done that. So it wasn't a test on HBShort's part, but it could still be failed. Make sense? Well, I passed it and she quickly tried to correct my perception of her.

More banter. HBShorty says, "Why don't you like us?" Which caught me off guard. I wasn't breaking rapport or negging them at this point. I was qualifying them. Looking back, it may have been a test or her self-esteem may have been much lower than I assumed. I responded with, "I still don't even know you. All I know about you guys is that you're cute." There's a rule in the community that you shouldn't answer girl's questions unless the answer is no. Well, I think you can answer most questions from a position of greater power.

HBTall, the one I'm really after, offers me a drink, kinos me and forces us into the comfort stage. She qualifies herself BIG TIME on how genuine and confident she is as a person (I challenged her on it earlier). She shows me a scar on her arm from an accident and recounts the story. She was trying to connect with me and chose something where I could hold her. It was the reverse of something I would do. Girls are doing this to me a lot recently. I see how community pioneers reverse-engineered what women do to guys they're attracted to. So I hold her arm, stroke her elbow, put my other arm around her and she loves me for it.

HBShorty, at this point, decides to try to pull her friend away. Usually I come across with such high value and likability that the target's friends try to hook us up. Even as I sit here and type this, I'm not quite sure why she acted the way she did. Maybe her earlier question about me liking them was an indication of low self-esteem and I needed to spend more time befriending her.

At any rate, she tries to pull HBTall way, saying she needs to go to the bathroom. HBTall is in the middle of telling me another comfort story about herself. I realize I need to lead the situation, so I interrupt HBTall and say, "Okay, let's do this. We'll walk you to the bathroom and I'll finish listening to the rest of her story."

HBTall was clearly feeling trapped between her desire for me and loyalty to her friend, so I say, "Let's go." and motion for HBShorty to lead the way. This turned out to be quick thinking, but flawed thinking. Walking through the club was a single-file journey and if HBTall was thinking that she couldn't leave her friend alone that night, then there was nothing I could do about it at that moment. By the time we got to the bathroom she might excuse herself and join her friend. But I couldn't kino or talk to her on the way because of physical logistics: it would quite clearly be a move of desperation.

Knight comes over and talks to me, so I leave the girls and join him. I decided it was higher value to talk to him and reopen them later. I never did reopen them.

What I should have done differently:

1. Instead of the alpha speech I gave HBShorty, I should have said, "Look, we're really enjoying talking to each other (verbalizing our comfort is a form of frame control) and even if I only talk to her for another five minutes (let HBTall know I'm not a sure thing) then I'm going to do that. She's got a lot of qualities I don't see in many women and I meet a lot of women. I hope you're not feeling left out, sometimes I get a bit selfish, but I'm enjoying talking to you too. If you're trying to ditch me, you're going to have to be really blunt about it." (Puts her on the spot -- it's socially acceptable to go to the bathroom, but not socially acceptable to be rude to someone her friend likes.)

Believe it or not -- and this is my proudest moment of tonight -- that entire complex speech was spontaneous. It popped into my head when I was getting my wing's take on it. It wasn't one of those sitting-down-and-strategizing-replies. It was natural to me.

2. Once I decided to leave them, I should have tapped HBTall on the shoulder and said, "I just spotted my friends so I'm going to talk to them. I'll find you in a little bit." This is because being in control of the situation is attractive and it may have looked like social pressure scared me off.

Last set of the night: the hot blonde who was trying to get my attention before I opened the strippers. She was trying to get my attention again (she must have seen me open HBTall and HBShorty), I wanted social proof when the strippers came back, so I opened her. Fun chat, she was into me, I feel good about it. She and my wing knew each other and I could tell he liked her, so I pulled back on the throttle.

All in all: awesome night!!!! Next time I'll force myself to be less lazy and own the dynamics of each interaction! I usually don't make out with girls I'm not attracted to, but it's still be fun. That may be what it takes for me to put the effort in as I journey towards mastery.