Last friday, went out to a friend's housewarming party. It was quite crowded, people packed into a small living room space, bodies touching, which spilled outside. The guy to girl ratio was unfavorable, about 5:1, but no one that exhibited PUA traits, except for two guys.

I was blown out a couple of times before getting a #-close. I'll only talk about the #-close.

** HB8 cutie I wanted to talk to earlier but hadn't **

I walked by her, and she was talking to my friend(A) and another guy. The friend(A) said hey, and I stopped, and said hey. Then he proceeded to talk me up about how awesome I am. He does this all the time regardless of whether we're talking to girls or not. I can't tell if he's just mocking me or not. But either way, it was social proof at this moment.

Then I turned to the other guy, and said hi, and he seemed familiar. Then he remembered, and said we had a group dinner together, and I gave him industry advice. More social proof.

Then I turned to her and asked her name. It was an odd name, so she said a mnemonic to help me remember. Later on, I asked again, and got it wrong on purpose, and got a playful slap out of it. She's in the last year of college, and I'm about 10 years older.

We talked a bit about what projects I was working on, and then other random things. I didn't exclusively talk to her all the time. She also laughed easier at things and was less guarded for whatever reason. Most of my kino was waist or small of the back. Somewhere in there, was a boob graze on my forearm. That was her doing, but wasn't an IOI. Probably just a lucky mistake.

The other guy left to go talk to another girl. And then HB8's friend HB7.5, come hopping in, and introduces herself to me and friend(A). While HB7.5 was talking to friend(A), I was going to jet, so I said to HB8, hey we should keep in touch. So she pulled out her phone and said, sure let's facebook. I leaned in and said actually, I'd like to have your number. So she said sure.

As she was dialing me, and I was waiting for the number to come in, HB7.5 notices that we're exchanging numbers and exclaims that "it's girl talk time", and tries to have her arm around HB8 to go somewhere else to talk--basically playing mother hen. "You shouldn't just give your number to strange guys!" Good thing HB8 resisted. I probably wouldn't have known what to do there. She broke away from HB7.5 and went back to dialing my phone while retorting, "Jamonman is cool...at least so far". I just laughed.

We talked some more, and friend(A) had to go. Then HB7.5 ejects to go find someone. So for a very short while, it was just me and HB8, then friend(B) comes in, rather drunk. I couldn't tell if he was trying to AMOG me at first, but he was spinning her a yarn--basically an elaborate lie to get her playfully guessing. I could tell that it was having some effect: while her body was pointed towards me, she leaned toward him. This was when my roommate came in and winged for me unprompted. Good thing he broke up friend(B)'s stride. Eventually, she said it was cold and roommate suggest we all go inside. When inside, I basically just stopped her by touching her on her waist, while the other two kept going.

We were able to talk for a little bit just with ourselves. I wasn't talking about anything fun in particular, but she was laughing (IOI). Then her cockblocking friend HB7.5 comes back and starts talking to her one on one with her arm around HB8's shoulder. It was something about finding some other guy that HB7.5 fancies. I hate it when this happens, where I'm just standing around like a chump. If you guys have tips about when this happens, I'd love to hear it.

After about 15 secs, I touch her on her arm, and just say that it was good meeting her, and that I'm going to run now. Well, after a bit of discussion, it ended up they didn't have a ride back. They asked if we drove, and I said yeah, if you want a ride, we're going now.

My roommate had to go use the bathroom before we left and HB8 wandered off somewhere, so I was alone with HB7.5 waiting for the other two. I guess this was some shit testing:

  • Her: So you're hitting on HB8, huh?
  • Me: Yup. I think she's cute. Don't you?
  • Her: Of course I do. We sleep together.
  • Me: (Laughing) then you'd know better than I.
  • Her: How old are you?
  • Me: I'm 32. [HB8 and HB7.5 are 22] [HB8 comes back and sits next to me, and mumbles "32..."]
  • Her: You don't look much older than 26. You've got a baby face.
  • Me: Haha. (I just laugh)
  • Her: So what have you done with your life?
  • Me: (Laughing some more) What indeed. :)
  • Her: Well, I mean I'm 22. I want to know what people accomplish by the time they're 32.
  • Me: I worked on missile guidance systems, spacecraft, and some medical imaging...etc.

By this time, the roommate came back, and we're walking along when we see the host (a girl). She see that I'm leaving, and she's a bit drunk, so she gives me a hug, and tries to convince me to stay. I guess more social proof. A guy that was talking to HB8 earlier was exchanging facebook with her. Then we left. I spent the 5 block walk to the car talking to HB7.5 about her time here. I'm guessing she was trying to suss me out.

We drive them back to their place and along the way, asked them if there was a pizza place near them. They looked it up on Yelp. We dropped them off, and went there and the pizza place was closed.

Next afternoon, sent her text:

  • Me: Hey HB8. :) So a strange girl gave me her number, but then gave the name of a pizza shop that was closed. Hrm...think I should keep in touch with her? ;)
  • Her: Oops, Yelp must have lied to her. That's forgivable, right?
  • Me: Haha, perhaps...Or we just have to think of a punishment for her. ;) what do you think is her favorite bb tea flavor? [we were talking about bubble tea places earlier in the night]
  • Her: ...a little too creepy for me. She really likes jasmine green tea.
  • Me: Haha, get your head out of the gutter. I'm just going to drink jasmine green tea in front of her when she can't have any. :)
  • Me: Anyway, you're a good sport. :) glad to have met you. Have a good weekend!
  • Her: Ahh, not fair. There don't seen to be many boba places
  • Her: Sorry, message send fail. There don't seem to be many boba places in downtown. Good to meet you too =) had a fun time. Any plans for the weekend?
  • [next morning] Me: Had a bunch of invites, like parkour, bar, and hiking, but said no to all. Needed to make progress on my work. :) Been playing too much. :)
  • Me: How about you? On a quest for boba places in SF?

All in all my game was terrible that night. The only reason I even got through it was social proof. Even the text game was terrible. I think I was able to save the creepy thing by accusing her of being perverted. But I should not have sent the last two texts, as I hadn't heard from her since. I didn't know whether taking the hint to ask her to a boba place was too much too soon.

Also, no k-close since I had no idea how to isolate. If you guys have tips about that, that'd be helpful.

tl dr; despite my bumbling, social proof got me somewhere with an HB8. God, I hope she doesn't read seddit.