Setting: So last night one of my friends was having her birthday party in her dorm downtown. Its a pretty controlled party, only so many people can fit in a dorm room (15-20 at a time, people constantly coming and going) and its a Monday night. Either way, everyone's drinking. I know maybe 50% of the people there, and all 50% are super happy to see me when I walk in the door - I instantly become the center of attention. I've been up to some crazy stuff lately (concerts, traveling, scuba diving with sharks, etc) and everyone wants to hear about it so I hold this momentum as center of attention for the remainder of the night. People I know are often coming across the room to try and start separate conversations with me, and everyone who didn't know me before is sucking up to me hoping to become friends with me too. This rarely happens to me, and definitely not to this extreme. Guess I'm showing progress, cool.

HB8.5: Eventually an HB8, Sarah, joins into my conversation who I have a lot of mutual friends with. But she's definitely my type so she's a solid 8.5. We've briefly met a few times by association through the last two years but never really talked. I isolate her as much as I can in a dorm room - both sitting on a bed adjacent with the outsides of our legs touching. She's very receptive of light kino. Every time she says something I like, I reward her with a high five that she turns into a quick interlocking of fingers. The conversation is flowing beautifully; we're both having fun and there's never a lull. Whenever a friend of her's comes over to talk to us, she tells them to "go away, we're having a conversation" then turns to me and asks me where we left off.

Downhill Decline: At this point we're both rather drunk and talking entirely about things we love, so I'm probably having too much fun with the conversation and no longer worrying about anything related to pickup besides some light kino simply because I like hugs, high fives, etc. She gets up to go to the bathroom and says she'll be right back. I havn't gone all night either so I figure its a good time for me to go right after her [1 bathroom]. When I come back out, I run into the birthday girl and talk to her for no more than a minute. Next thing I know, another friend comes by, clearly confused, and tells me "Woah, what the fuck, apparently Sarah's hooking up with Connor!" In what couldn't be any more than 4 minutes, one of my friends came in and closed because I hadn't. I'm confident, dress well, and lucked out genetically in brains, height, and looks. Connor is confident and dresses well, but honestly he's a weird, weird lookin dude. Apparently during the 4 minutes I was gone, he comes in, asks for help looking for his phone next door, Sarah goes over to call him and listen to it ring while another guy and Connor look for it. I don't even know if Connor really lost his phone, because apparently he just k closes her instantly. Boom. News spreads the same way it got to me, and the majority of the party is all really surprised.

Takeaway: Instantly a feeling of jealousy and regret comes over me, my mood completely flips. Normally I'd feel terrible for the rest of the night, but thanks to /r/seduction I realize even a loss can be turned into a lesson. Unfortunately a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I've heard it again and again.. ABC: Always Be Closing. I could have claimed her as mine at any point during the conversation. She was clearly into me, and I had so much time where I could have just k closed her there or led her somewhere else. But I didn't. I easily could have claimed her first and finished the conversation later, instead of continuing the conversation and planning on k closing her later. Retrospectively, I still had a great night and learning this lesson was probably more valuable to me than that hookup would have been anyways. Just remember seddit, always be closing.

Additionally, this is yet another example of how looks don't matter.

PS: I was talking to my mom on the phone this morning and she reiterated another classic mentality the pick up community tends to agree upon. Women don't like nice guys. She told me that she regretted marrying my dad, and admitted that she tends to like guys who are rough around the edges and how unfortunate it is she was never attracted to nice guys. Weird to think that I was literally created under the premise that nice guys finish last.

Obligatory Famous Glengarry Glen Ross "Always Be Closing" Speech