Whew! Not a lot of sleep and way too much money spent on alcohol but it was a long, interesting weekend. Lesson learned? Remember to close!

Started out with a pub crawl on Friday night. Lots of bars, lots of new people, plenty of opportunities! Never had much problem with approach anxiety and this night was no different. Met up with the crawlers, mostly guys, and got to know them. Had a few drinks, made some business contacts. Good stuff.

First female approach was on a couple of asian girls at the bar. Solid 7s or 8s, I'd say. I opened with the "Are you a regular here?" if so, then "What kind of drink does this bar do well?" If they waffle I just ask them what they're having. Then I move on to more interesting stuff. Place was really loud but the girls were receptive. Told her and her friend that they should come a long with the rest of us. They seemed to go for the idea but then I got swept up with the rest of the crawlers. Forgot to go back and follow up. Oh well. Mission fail, no close.

My protip: Make good with the musicians if there are any. A drink for the band and I had a place to stash my coat and some social proof. :) So next approach was pretty open ended. Our eyes met from across the bar and there was some mild recognition. I went a long with it and she basically told me to dance. Seemed like an HB8 to me but my buds assured me she was "Totally hot!" I decided to be teasing with this one. One of her friends was a big, shaved head dude and I was all "Oh no, you're trying to get me beat up, aren't you?" Laughter happened, running joke was made for the whole night. Later brought said friends in on the joke, much smiling was to be had (including counter teasing from her female friend.) Again, later on in the night I wound up getting swept along to the next bar without making any kind of close. Mission fail.

Same bar as above, on an upstairs balcony. Three blonds (7 and two 8s, IMO) showed up and I honestly cant remember how I started the conversation. The whole encounter was pretty hazy but I know I was getting good vibes and I had some back up from the other crawlers for part of this one. Once again, however, we were off before I made any kind of close.

So when I went out on Saturday night, I commanded myself to close if any kind of encounter went well this night. It was my roommate's GF's birthday. Large group, spent most of the night hanging out with them. Actually met one of the pub-crawlers from the night before! This was a rave-y type of club. Most of the dancing is pretty singular. One trick I've figured out is to get some kind of glowy thing (glow stick, etc.), find someone who you want to meet that's dancing and basically used the glowstick as a sort of spot light. Works especially well if you're tall so you can get it over their heads in a sort of spotlight fashion.

Did this for one girl. Short and cute, not usually my type but hey, she was having fun! It worked out pretty well. She definitely seemed like the super-friendly type. "I only do hugs!" Anyway, I finally remembered to close! The group needed to leave (the birthday girl was getting sick) so I decided to go for a phone close. In my infinite brilliance, I forgot my phone! Luckily my roommate was on hand and I got him to take her number. Thank god for wingmen. (Many more props, since he later was the DD and got me water when I got sick.)

TL;DR? Out twice this weekend and had a lot of opportunities. Failed to close on all but one. Lesson learned is close often and be prepared to close!