The downside of living at home is that parents yell at you when you come back late, in this case 1am. Whatever, I'm happy with myself. I've been a long time lurker here and made my first cold approaches out w/the BAS crew.

Background: Recent college grad working full time, living at home, was meeting some cool guys playing football, etc, not having great luck meeting women. I'd always make up some excuse whether it was living at home, work tomorrow, no one else to go with, etc. Finally decided to get off my ass and meet up w/BAS people in Palo Alto.

Met up w/a guy (he's from another forum, I'll call him [A]). Talked for a bit, then Kumar shows up. We sit down and within 5 minutes this birthday girl sits down at our table and opens [A]. Kumar hooks her hot blonde friend, chat a bit and they leave (Kumar did you ever track down the blonde and # close her?)

I'm not a bar scene person at all -- I've been a few times w/friends but these was literally my first cold approaches. My goal for the night was just to get comfortable approaching.

1 Opened three women at the bar. Mainly talked to one chick, found out she's a college student, celebrating end of school year. Kumar shows up and 5 of us take a pic. Her bf (or a really close guy friend) comes in and gives her a big hug and blocks me out so I eject.

After that I spent the rest of the night winging w/[A]. We took turns so I'd open one set, he'd come in 2 min later and vice versa.

2 [A] opens a three set, including 1 midget. The midget was the only one paying attention, other two were being really bitchy and blowing him off. Didn't change when I came in. Total blowout.

3 I open a guy/girl that was part of a larger group. Turns out the guy's got some minor dancing role in Glee. Girl was her cousin who would not shut up about the guy's acting career. I probably could have played this better instead of letting her yap on. [A] comes in and makes some joke about how they seem a little too close. She gets offended and the group leaves shortly after.

4 [A] opens a table of 5 latina chicks. I get there and he's introducing me but can't remember one of the chick's name. They're annoyed and bounce.

Takeaways: overall, there were a lot of mixed sets and large groups. I found that I was fairly comfortable opening small sets. Having a wing there to both support and push me definitely helped. No numbers, nothing really went anywhere but I thought it was a good first step.

What I need to work on: body language and being more confident in my approach. Transitioning past the opener (I usually say something like "Hey you look like you're having fun") and guiding the conversation. Talking to everybody and doing more approaches in general.

I'm still not a fan of the bar scene but I'm not as intimidated as before. Thanks Kumar for kicking my ass and making me come out.