I got invited to a dhow cruise (for you guys not in the middle east, it's a boat) by my roommate. I had just broken up with my girl literally an hour before so I said sure why not. I need to get out there and try out some of the stuff I've been reading here for a while.

So we get to the dhow and there's some HB8's and 9's around. Most of them are married and the rest have SO's with them. So it's not really a place to make a move so much as to get some low-to-no pressure practice. After all, I'm still a bit shaken up from the pretty angry breakup anyway. So I drink the thoughts away and focus on having a good time.

Well fast forward a few hours and I'm social as all hell. Opening sets (light and friendly), talking it up, joking, having a good time. I talked with the guys if they were around the HB's, just to disarm them. Hell, I even dodged a shit-test with a HB9. She asked my profession so I said programmer. "Ah..computer geek." (any experience with that one guys)? My response was almost immediate: "I like to say I'm good with my fingers." I get a crazy authentic laugh from her as well as another HB8 who was listening in (I didn't know she was). I initiated KINO whenever possible as well (arm around shoulder but in a friendly way, or adjusting a girl's glow-wristband, or making her help me adjust mine, etc).

Later on, the lights went off the top. My roommate brought some glowsword kids toys (it was a pirate-themed party so he brought props). I immediately grabbed one and did some drunk-ass raver move where you fling the sword around like you're a ninja. It was just for fun. I look up and everyone is staring at me in awe. Raving is like that around drunk-ass people. You could suck at it but as long as it's dark and you have a glowy object moving around in some kidn of rhythm, people love it. My roommate said this was a totally different side of me (in a good way). A few other guys and girls got inspired and jumped in on the action with other glowy swords.

So I finally found out what it's like to add true value to a party. To at least hold everyone's shared attention for a few minutes. I spent the rest of the night on a pretty good mental high from it all. Opening more sets, even asked a girl "Why aren't we dancing?" and she immediately gets up and dances with me for a few minutes (nobody else was dancing so it got awkward).

Sadly, I didn't make any moves past the dance-closes (if you want to call it that), but I did put out a lot of effort. I don't know this crowd and totally couldn't keep up with who's married to who or dating who or whatever. So I kept it neutral.

tl;dr: Broke up with my g/f of 3 years, got invited to a day-cruise, felt more confident than I have in months, handled my first shit-test, dance-closed like a boss, and had a blast. Not a bad start.

Thanks for reading. So, any advice? Pep-talk? Ideas for improvements? What about the shit-test response?