I met this HB7 through a business contact when she was asking for advice about an internship with computer vision. Didn't think about her much after that, since business is business. Bumped into her again a couple weeks later when we were both with our group of friends and I noticed two things:

  • When I said hi, she shook my hand with her mouth agape. At the time, I asked her why she was so surprised to see me.
  • While we were both waiting for our friends, I sat down on the bench, and she turned her entire body towards me, sat cross-legged, and randomly suggested I try strawberry spinach yogurts, because they were the best things on earth.

Her: You know what you should try? Strawberry spinach yogurts. They're the best!

Me: Spinach? That sounds like one of the worst ideas I've heard all day. I'm going to file that one under "bad ideas".

Her: No! You defn have to try it. It's delicious.

And when we were done waiting for our friends, she mentioned it again as she was leaving. All the things together, I took as an IOI.

I don't like mixing business and pleasure, but I usually regret thing I don't do, rather than things that I do, so I shot off an email to her a week later, saying I thought strawberry spinach yogurts were a bad idea at first, but I wanted to try it and asked if she wanted to join me.

The answer came back yes. I can't take much credit for a pickup here. When she's interested, you just have to make sure you can read it, and pull the trigger, even if you're not 100% sure.

She invited me over to her place to cook together and make yogurts as a first date. She lives in a house with at least a dozen to two dozen other people with a large communal commercial kitchen, so I don't think it's what you're thinking.

I've been learning to keep my conversation lighter. I tend to ask about things that are more heavy in nature, like their jobs or their goals, when I let myself slip. You never want to have a girl talk about things that depress her mood, since she'll associate that feeling with you.

She was telling me about how there was a naked body painting party last night, and that's why there was a bra hanging from the ceiling. She said she didn't attend. Mistake here is that I could have done better here to escalate and tease her about lying about attending to start a push/pull

I did do some kino, mostly hand on the knee in brief for emphasis. I did find a way to kino when we were talking about allergies.

Me: You got a cold? You're sniffling.

Her: No, I have allergies.

Me: Have you ever had an allergen test done?

Her: No.

Me: here [takes her hand], they take your arm, [pushes up her sleeves], and then they poke you with different kinds of allergens, and see which one welts up. [pokes her forearm repeatedly]

It was just kino I made up on the spot, though I don't know if it's a good idea to associate my kino with allergies. In addition, she pulled her hand away first. I really should have dropped her hand first, akin to Mystery's kino advice.

In hindsight, I could have also added high-fives to the kinoing. When I tell her good news, she usually replies with 'alright!'. That's a good time for a high-five kino. lesson for next time.

We cooked and ate, and the funny thing about a communal kitchen is that the housemates will just gravitate towards prepared food. Hardly anyone was walking around when we were cooking, but when it was done, they just seem to come out of the woodwork. It ended up being a crowd of us and 4 others eating in the kitchen. I was able to talk and joke with them on various topics, all of which I was able to converse something about--which I assume is a DHV.

I was able to re-isolate her by mentioning that we should eat the (small) dessert that I brought, and we ended up sitting outside her place on another bench, and just talk and eat. Good convo, though I can't remember what we talked about.

Here, the only kino I managed to do was wipe some dessert off the corner of her mouth, and the usual arm and knee touches in conversation.

No k-close, as I mistakenly kept walking with her back into the house and then decided to leave, rather than deciding to leave before we had entered her house at the end. She initiated a hug before I had much time to think. Then as I was walking away, she told me that I should give her a call and we should hang again.

No yogurts were made, but I think overall, she had fun. And yes, I should have k-closed much earlier, esp with the dessert wiping off of her face. I need to stop thinking that the end is the only time one can k-close. Some texting back and forth since the date, and she's game for date #2. We're actually going to go get yogurts next time. And next time, I will escalate much faster.