Style Life Day 20

Better late than never.

So day 20 is all about attempting to close, and guess what - I closed.

This was Friday night. I was actually in really bad spirits too. Just work and family and me thinking about my ex and my financial situation and everything - it's not a horrible existence, I just have trouble appreciating all the good things in my life sometimes. This was definitely the case Friday night. I was close to calling Effect and telling him I didn't feel like going out but I changed my mind because, as they say

"However old you may live to be, you will never have any other joy in the world than these few hours. Savour them to the very dregs, because, after this, there is nothing left for you. This first spring on which you have stumbled is also the last. Quench your thirst, once and for all; you shall not drink again."

another thing that get me down sometimes - the sense of time slipping away irretreivably, regret over so much time wasted wallowing in apathy. I am determined to not waste any more time and really make something of myself.

The night starts out badly. We are supposed to meet Effect's friend, Emperor, at this house party. He doesn't really know the people who are having the party, he has only gotten an invitation via email. The address he tells us to go to is in a bad neighborhood on the South Side, it is obviously the wrong address because nobody is home. We are driving up and down the block when we call Emperor and he tells us he must have gotten the wrong address. We meet up with him and all 3 of us go to Wicker Park to hit some bars instead.

We sit at McGearty's for an hour, drinking coffee, and talking about bullshit. After a while we head over to Rodan. I open a set at the bar but she is there with her boyfriend, it turns out. Wasn't a bad set, I always get thrown off by the boyfriend.

I open a 3 set - 2 brunettes and a blonde with streaks in her hair. Target is the blonde. This was a really long set, half hour or so, which I leave and reopen periodically. I had her ROFL with my stupid DHV routine - a story about how I gave CPR to a cat. I think the sequence of events went like this - ask her about this bar we are thinking of going to, opener of cats vs. dogs, part two of opener - do you think it's feminine for a man to have a lot of cats and masculine for a woman to have a large dog like a pit bull or a great dane?, then I start talking about pets, how I had a hard time housebreaking this cat I used to have, how horrible the sound of 2 cats fucking is, I'm really lucky she is a cat person and owns 2 persians.

Her friends come back and she makes me tell them the story about how I gave CPR to a cat. They are also ROFL. I am in there for a long time, she and her friends meet up with other people - there is this guy in the group who seems to be all over her, so I excuse myself and rejoin my friends. Later I reopen her by showing her pictures of Effect's cat. Then I attempt to merge Effect into it. I think I screwed it up a little at this point by talking about how JayDog got his ass whipped by some dominatrixes at Exit.

Emperor wants to leave, so I go for a close with her before I leave - I say, we're having a party to celebrate my friend's oral surgery in a couple of weeks, give me your number and I'll invite you. So I get the number and the email. We drop Emperor off, then me and Effect go to Clarke's for some greasy diner food. I order the chicken salad and fries.

I am improving. My sets are getting longer and longer, I am more relaxed, attempting to close seems natural to me now. Most of all, it is fun now. I may have started with crappier inner game than most people - but now I really believe that if you stay on the path and don't give up you will keep getting better.

A couple of thoughts - Style talks about how he got good by 'chunking' his knowledge, meaning he focused on adding one piece of his game at a time - first opening, then negs, then disqualifying, then DHV's, then bait and release, etc. I am still forgetting to neg and disqualify half the time. Mental note to myself to focus on this one thing until I always do it, just like I always open and root and time constraint now.


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