Quote:
I like your Shirt/T-Shirt/Whatever my friend has one just like that, she bought it at a discount sale.
Haha, that's awesome, I'm definitely stealing that.
As far as "mid-game", or continuing the conversation, I think a lot of it is just developing your conversation skills. Make observations, ask interesting questions and listen to what she says so that you can ask her intelligent questions about what she says to continue the flow of conversation.
Another thing is that I have three funny stories in my head that I can pull out, if I get a brain freeze. But generally, conversation skills are just something that you need to practice.