Disclaimer: Kinda long, so read the TLDR and takeaways if you're short on time. Also go easy on me, first time posting.

Background: I'm your standard late 30s married guy, live in suburbia, drive a early 2000s sedan (by choice - paid off), 2 kids under 5, work in IT, wear glasses, beer belly and so on. Now I'm not bad looking or ugly by any stretch but certainly not dressed "cool" or anything like that. Been married for over 10 years. Was decent around women, pre-committed relationship days but nothing great.

Over the last 10 years, I'd become a complete AFC socially, particularly with women. Every single day I used to wake up feeling like complete shit which impacted my interaction with others which in turn made me feel worse - vicious cycle. While researching self-improvement material, I stumbled upon /r/seduction and it's helped quite a bit.

Two of the biggest areas of improvements I've experienced are in body language and communication. From reading various highly rated posts I've worked a lot on my body language - posture, eye contact, confident gait and so on.

Eye contact was one of my biggest challenges because I always used to stare at the ground when talking to strangers. Instead I hold steady but not overbearing eye contact and never ever look at the ground anymore. Also got my head out of the fucking smartphone when I'm around people.

The other two techniques I try to follow is "talk to everyone" and "touch everyone" (buried in sidebar links).

Being a busy suburban dad, I don't get to socialize much on my own so I practice whenever I'm at the local Publix grocery store, particularly in check-out line. I always make it a point to talk to the person in front or behind me. I also make it a point to talk to the cashier and the person bagging the groceries beyond simple "how are you?" "i'm good" exchanges. It doesn't matter to me if this is a guy or girl or young or old. The results are usually 50-50. Some people are happy to extend the conversation and some just want to be left alone. My aim is not to date them, fuck them, or anything else, beyond just making myself more sociable.

The actual incident: So I was at the local Publix the other day, in the checkout line and noticed a somewhat attractive woman behind me, early 30s at most, HB8 by my suburban dad standards. So as I'm checking out, she starts loading her groceries on the conveyor.

Me (pointing to some bottled sweet tea): "Are those any good?" She seemed rather taken aback by my question. I experience this a lot, my theory is that people are so used to not communicating with strangers that they're surprised when someone approaches them. Her (nervous smile): "I don't know I'm trying them for the first time" Me (deadpanning): "Oh good. You can try it and if you survive, maybe I'll buy some" (shitty joke, I know. I make those a lot) She starts laughing but doesn't offer any follow up.

Meanwhile I'm checking out, so I make small talk to the checkout girl and the bagging boy. When I'm done, I'm about to walk away. Me: Good luck drinking that sweet tea. She: So you like sweet tea? Me: Yea, having lived in the South, I've learned to appreciate good sweet tea when you can find it.

We go on to talk about where we're from and other stuff like that. All the while she's checking out and paying. Then we walk to the parking lot, chatting all the while. I notice she's wearing a tank and workout shorts and a tattoo on her shoulder. Me (touching the back of her shoulder): that's a nice butterfly tattoo on your shoulder. She: Do you have any tattoos? Me: No I'm scared of needles. Besides I think they look sexier on women. Does it signify anything or were you just drunk when you got it? (shifting conversation away from my lack of tattoos) She (laughing again): explains some significance blah, blah, blah I'm just smiling and nodding as if I'm paying attention, interjecting with "oh yea that makes sense" or the random question.

I interrupt her and physically turned her shoulder around to look at the tattoo once more and made some comment about the colors and asked if it was a "monarch" butterfly (I'd seen that on a show). Then more blah blah blah from her. After she's done, Me: so are you going to the gym after you go home? She: Huh? I don't go the gym as much. I like running outside. Me: Oh I thought these were gym clothes. Shows you how often I go there. She (laughed again): So what do you do on the weekends for fun? Me: I hang out with my family. Mow the yard. Drink sweet tea. Talk to random women with butterfly tattoos at grocery stores. She (laughs again): well i've got to go but we should talk again She reached into her handbag, pulled out a pen, scribbled her name and number on the back of her grocery receipt. Me: Well (looking at paper) Angie. It was nice talking to you. Yes we should definitely catch up later. Btw, my name is throwaway_sh. She: throwaway_sh, it was fun meeting you (or something like that). Talk to you soon.

As she walked away, I stared at her nice ass. After she crossed the road, she turned and sort of caught me. But I just smiled and waved.

After she drove away, the first thing I did was rip up the paper with her name and number. Knowing me I'm easily tempted. I'm in this for self improvement and ego boosting and don't want to be tempted or let this affect my marriage. Then I went home, unloaded the groceries and, that night, made sweet love to my baby momma, all the while thinking of this hot woman from the grocery store who would be furiously masturbating at home thinking of me.

Some takeaways for people who suffer from social awkwardness like I used to: 1. I've been practicing this for nearly 6 months and this is the first time, the conversation went this far. So, "patience grasshopper" 2. It's very easy to talk to chicks at grocery stores, where they're probably not used to being approached. So, find a local one where chicks your age frequent for groceries but talk to everyone. 3. Many chicks these days have some tattoos. If you see it, bring it into your conversation. Always find some common ground, in this case, sweet tea 4. This is easy for me to say, but don't worry about the end result. Just stick to the process a) you'll get better at it b)it will work on the right person

TLDR; Practiced some "talk to everyone" and "touch everyone" techniques at grocery store checkout line. Got a # close, no follow up for obvious reasons.