So, I'm going to a wedding tomorrow, and I was getting a haircut to look good. I'm still trying to break my AA and all that junk, but lately I've been going out of my way to work up to it, mainly the first point being something I learned here; talk to everybody.

While I was there, another guy was trying to pick up the receptionist, but trying too hard. As in way too hard. From talking to the girls working there, outside of what I witnessed, when he called to make his appointment, she asked for his phone number over the phone to make the reservation and he said "Why, so you can call me up sometime?" to which they all laughed and thought he was a dirty old man.

When he actually came in, he was like a 17-18 year old kid in highschool. On his way out, he even tried to press further, asking the receptionist "So, when are we gonna go out sometime?" to which she replied "I have a boyfriend", which I found out was true later. Not super important, since I wasn't going to try to pick her up, but I noticed the shit test. He had some crap reply to it, and just walked out quietly.

So, while I was getting my hair cut, I started talking to my stylist, just the small talk usual. One of the other girls in the shop was dying a woman's hair next to me, and the receptionist started cleaning just around the store. The topic eventually shifted to the creeper kid and I threw out how I would've replied to the shit test of having a boyfriend with "Oh, me too, we should all do coffee sometime", which made everyone laugh. They then told me about the phone call, and things sank into place.

Eventually, the topic shifted to how the one girl had a crush on a guy and how the other stylists had played a joke on her by scheduling a fake appointment for him with her, as well as some other things. I just casually dropped the line "Hey, you guys don't need to talk about me like I'm not here" and got another good response.

I didn't #-close or anything, but as a first step of trying to get out of my awkward shell, there really wasn't a dropped beat during the conversation. I brought up topics, keep a good flow going, and most certainly had a good example of what not to do and what it looked like to be desperate, i.e. what to avoid doing.

Definitely good practice. Hopefully the wedding tomorrow is another success. And a slight bolster of confidence too.