This was my third solo night out in a row, and I was really tired from getting only three hours of sleep each of the previous two nights, but I wanted to go anyway, since the night before had gone so well before the frustrating crash and burn.

I decided to try a new place, a small club playing classic soul. I've found that I prefer approaching girls on a dance floor over approaching them at a bar table, so I figured a place that's all dance floor might be good.

The wait to get in was about 45 minutes, because the club was so packed, so I chatted with the girls next to me in line. Two months ago, I would have ignored them due to shyness and come off as really unfriendly. Thanks, seddit!

Once in the club, I opened a bunch of sets, I don't bother to count, and it was a lot of fun. Too loud to talk, mostly. One HB4 (very cute face, but considerable girth) quickly pulled me into some surprisingly scandalous dancing. When the song was over, I told her I needed to rejoin my people. She asked if I had a phone, so I gave it to her, and she entered her number and texted herself (or so I thought, but it didn’t work). Whenever I passed her for the rest of the evening, I gave her a smile or a hip bump but avoided getting pulled in again.

Eventually I found myself dancing with a very short HB6. I'm not sure how short, but getting down to her level was painful on my legs. She was really into it, very close, so I attempted a kiss. She was not into that (and also tasted like smoke, ick). I just smiled and kept dancing with her, and then moved on when the song was over. For the next hour, I danced with several other girls and spent some time outside recovering from the ridiculous heat inside. About 15 minutes from closing, I ended up dancing with the same short HB6 until the end. I’m not a great dancer, but I am a very free dancer, doing whatever silly moves come to head, and I could tell that she was again really into it. When it was over, she thanked me and said it was "very refreshing." I guess that meant I gave value.

I headed down the street and went into a pizza place to get a slice. All the tables were full, but one had two girls at it, so I decided that after ordering I would join them. As I approached them, the people at the next table got up and left. I asked "May I join you?" and the girls looked confused. So I said that I wasn't going to let the appearance of an open table prevent me from meeting new people. This led to a fun conversation for the next half hour or so. Again, no attempt at #-close, because I wasn't that interested in calling either of them.

Third and final stop was an after hours club. I just found out about the existence of the after hours club that day, so I wanted to check it out. The club was about 90% male, and most of them just standing there or barely dancing, as if hoping some not-very-picky girl would magically appear and make their nights. (I'm pretty sure a good number of them were gay as well; I think they were doing fine with each other.) In this environment, the same sort of fun dancing that had gone over really well at the earlier club fell totally flat. As far as I can tell, being surrounded by a bunch of desperate, lame-seeming guys caused the girls to have their defenses all the way up. Any approach from a stranger was unwelcome. Based on the reactions I got, a flashily dressed and enthusiastically dancing stranger in this setting was especially creepy. After an hour of constant rebuff and lockout, I headed home.