| good day yesterday! i was off from work. i went to a hip hop class in the evening and bought a $60 matching shirt/baseball cap to look attractive and hip because i was going to talk to girls at the lesson. fyi, i am the only guy in the hip hop class - the rest are girls. i put my stuff down and i went to sit on a bench next to a woman with a wedding ring on. i was facing this woman and took two steps and while my body was still open towards her, as i was landing on my seat, it was only then that i made eye contact smiled and said hi how are you? and without stopping or changing anything in how my body was moving with the intention of sitting down, i continued to sit down. so if you were just looking at how i went from standing to taking a seat, just by my body leanguage you could not tell that i said hi to this woman or that she said hi back. my own theory is that this sets women at ease because it lets them know that you are not going to chase them, you did not just come with the intention of talking and putting them on the spot, you are doing your own thing - sitting down or walking - and you happen to say hi in the process and you are not going to change your own plans to take the seat and sit or to keep walking or keep standing where you were whether they talk to you or not. i get more positive replies from women that way! so i turned my back toward the woman right away. i noticed then she began fidgeting and moving away from me, so to put her at ease, i stood up and took a few steps away from her giving her safe space and just started stretching. i have planted my feet and did not move closer to her when i started to talk to her again. i just said hi how are you? again and asked something about the dance. she said she saw me last week in the other class at the studio and we talked about dancing and i asked her where else she takes dance lessons and it turned out i went once to the studio that she goes to. then this young ballerina type of girl came in and put her stuff down. she saw us talking. she was standing and then sitting down stretching and then standing again near me and this woman - proximity IOI! also talking to a woman in the class who was approving of me (i hope) sent out some positive signals maybe even made other girls a little jealous i hope. anyway, this young single ballerina girl joined our circle of conversation but she began talking to this woman. i interrupted them and just started talking directly to her. we talked and then sat down stretching talking more. then after the lesson she hung around and was the last one to leave and was facing her back toward me so i addressed and started talking to her. i listened to what she said and tried to sell myself a little by saying how i go dancing and also that i live on my own and have a job and graduated from college. when i first met her i mentioned this other dance across the street that i go to sometimes. then after the lessons i wanted to ask her out, so i just said "so do you want to go to that dance?" she said maybe she might stop by, but then no she has a class that day. (might've been a lie) i was dressing and she was lingering talking to me. then she decided to go and said she has to get going - so bye. in the process, i shook her hand and found out her name and age. so that was it, even though she seemed interested, i gave her a chance to say yes she wants to go to this other dance and give me an excuse to ask for her contact info - but she did not and i just left her go. maybe she was not interested anyway. oh and the married woman who i first opened, she said good bye to me when she left - that was nice!
so then i went to this cozy coffee shop i really enjoy and said down at the table next to where the girls were and also with two empty table on each side in front of me in case any girl sit down there it would be easier and look/feel more natural to open them. actually, this girl was sitting on the left already studying a book. i sat down reading my newspaper and then saw her getting ready to leave, packing her bag. i thought what the hell i will open her and see if the negative voice in my head saying "she will freak out and reject you if you talk to her" so i asked her "what are you reading?" i should have smiled, but i did not feel like smiling, i actually smiled a little later. she told me she was a sculptor. so we talked a little and i told her about the dancing and said actually i just came out of a hip hop class and told her a little about it. she said she wants to take a class called "contact improvisation" i was trying to flirt with her so i smiled and said "oh do you need a partner for that? i'll be your partner, you can do all the contact you want. you will do the contact, i will do the improv - i am good at improv" it was kinda unnatural and not smooth, but she played along and seemed to enjoy though it was awkward and laughed it off and gave me like a pat on the arm in the air. i kept looking at her and listening while she was talking. i asked what sculpture she made last and she said you can't explain with words. so i said she should show it with her body and i made funny movement with my arms and shoulders and my head. she stood up and did this lean forward and kinda a circle with her arms to show what her sculpture looked like. i said "yeah that's a good sculpture" because in Feeling Good by Dr Burns it says that when people flirt they are very afraid of being rejected, and it does not matter what you say, often as long as you say anything it is good enough not to make them feel rejected, but that when someone flirts with you or gives you a compliment it is best to say something positive and agree with the person like - "yes this is a good shirt!" - just something to support what the person told you and not put yourself down or shoot the person down. then this girl left after lingering on for fiver minutes talking to me and i finished my tea and cake and reading the paper and went to this improv games workshop. i was there before over the past 1-2 years a few times, the people are cliquey, so i did not even bother going out for pizza with them after the workshop. i went to a bar with a free show, danced by myself, it was weird - lots guys, and 2-3 girls who had bfs were dancing near me and one of them was even briefly making eye contact, standing near me. i did not approach her cuz she had the bf or male friend. whatever, i hate bars, i get lost when i talk to women at bars anyways, i can't act cocky, i feel on the spot. i just danced by myself and came home.
the other good news in is that the girl i sat next to, waited until she started moving about because someone sat next to her and she had to move over, talked to her, got her email, kept talking to her, then left. that girl accepted my fb friend request AND replied to my email!! that's kinda a success i think. if i keep doing this more, eventually some girl will become my friend or invite me to a party or i might even get a date or find a gf. all this work i did over past 2 years is paying off a little. what i CAN do now is go out to dance lessons or coffee shops and say hi to women and have many of the women talk to me and not shudder away and i can try to flirt a little too, though i noticed it pushes a lot of women away and i get more convos if i don't try to flirt. so i can get conversations with strangers with both men and women, but i at the end of the conversation i am never at ease with them (although i am more or less at ease opening them) i just get to this stage where i feel awkward and i don't know if they like me (i think they dont like me) and i don't know if they are talking to me because they like and i feel like they don't want to talk to me and wish i would leave them alone and actually are trying to subtly get away from me, i have this fear that i am one of those people who keeps talking to someone even though that person is not interested and is uncomfortable, and is looking for the first opportunity to shake this person off and get away. this is not trues often in my case, i think because of my fear of rejection and social anxiety and just my panic at talking to people and my habit of pushing people away and i also the feeling i get - i get pissed off whenever someone is near me physcically or emotionally and push people away - i probably lose out a lot. i just hate togetherness and would rather be rejected than be accepted as a friend because that makes me uncomfortable and anxious. two years ago i told my therapist i think i have Asperger's syndrome, and he said i just have "horrible social anxiety" - which i have noticed are the weird/awkward/negative feelings of panic and rejection i feel whenever i even talk to people. oh well. anyway. let me post the email i sent to the cofee shop girl and what she replied. it sounds like she is brushing me off and i pretty bad with messaging girls so i am going to play it safe and not reply to her i think, just in case she wants to be friends with me and sends me an invited to something. maybe if i dont message her again, we can become friends. and if i do reply to her, i will say something weird and she will not reply back and then she will be unreachable and i won't have any friendship with her. so anyway, i sent her:
"Hey, it's Jeff, how are you? I live in ____ and I work at an ______. After college I went out a lot - social dancing (swing and salsa), shows, did house improvement projects, then last thing I did was take an acting class. Now, I occasionally go dancing, and just stay home, do important stuff (I have two jobs and I am saving money to buy a house) and cook yummy rice and have friends come over. I am planning BBQs and stuff in the back yard in the spring.
I was wondering if you have any engineering friends or any stuff you do that I might be interested in, like do you do any Indian dancing or do you go to coffee shops and talk to your friends about engineering stuff? "
she replied a few days later:
"Hey Jeff
Thanks for your massage. Your life sounds interesting. You lucky man you already done with your school. As you, I also enjoy cooking delicious Indian foods. But these busy days I don’t get chance to cook delicious foods. I am Interested on dance but I don’t dance that much. I have some ferns who are studying engineering as well and they dance very well. Our spring break is just over so we couldn’t enjoy at this time we will join with you later. Anyway thanks for massage. Enjoy your spring.
Thanks
bye"
I won't reply to her I think. But I will show this message to other people and ask what they think too.
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