When you find something that works for you, you tend to stick with it. I had a routine stack that would open any set consistently, with a great segue to an IVD, followed by a personal DHV-spiked story. (Mother's birthday, Wolf's Paws, and Spanish Friends, in case you were curious. I'm pretty sure I've listed them here before.)
I have probably used that stack over 200 times, and it is getting very, very hard to make it work for me.
So, after devising the general strategy, I decided to use a new routine stack. This is my second day using it.
Yesterday at the mall where I work, I ran the modified Tent Opener on a FF 2-set, threw in a FTC by saying that I was on break and couldn't stay too long (truth), then I ran the 2 men routine, then we just vibed a bit. Turns out they're both geeks, so we talked a bit about random geeky stuff. Tried a BT-based tease ("Hey look, an obvious distraction"), but they wouldn't look, so I didn't try anything else along those lines. They didn't have cell phones, so they told me where they might be around the time I got off work.
I met them there, along with 2 of their male friends, ran the best friends test (they passed easily), tried a BT-based roleplay which didn't work ("you guys are like the dorky little sisters I never had" "Uh, no."), and ran another DHV story (Spanish friends), which they found hysterical for some reason. I still don't know why, sometimes the story has that effect, other times they look at me like they're still waiting for the punchline.
The situation wasn't really going anywhere, so I left. At that point I realized that my biggest sticking point was a lack of plan for venue change or Day2.
I still need to work on that.
Today I had some running around to do. I took the bus as usual, and on the first trip met somebody I recognized from high school. Back in high school I was an annoying attention whôre, which may be why she completely ignored my overtures. Undaunted, I attempted to make contact, only for her to tell me that before work, she listens to music by herself in the back of the bus. Subcommunication: Leave me alone.
At that point I tried something I'd never done before. I took two non-existant calls on my cell phone, the first about somebody expecting me to have some sort of project done by a certain time, and me putting my foot down, the other about a woman who wanted me to spend time with her, or at least come to a party she would be at. I figured that even though the target probably wasn't paying attention to me, it was worth a shot. Then I tried once more to open the lines of communication, to no avail. Oh well. At the next stop I moved over to another passenger and opened her with Mom's b-day, but I've used that so many times I just couldn't get it to hook.
Then, on a later bus, I see two different woman, both of them attractive enough to open, but because of my personal preferences, I open the slightly nerdier-looking one of the two.
Modified Tent Opener, segue to the 2 men opener, she talks about her "mates" not being necessarily attractive, I catch her choice of words, she tells me she's a furry. Me: "Oh man, I just got rid of the last one."
I wasn't going to use Wolf's paws. I swear I had retired it, but it was so relevant to the situation, I just had to use it. I use the stock cold read based off of that, then we talk a little bit more. I see the other woman smile at a joke I tell the first one, and my first instinct should have been to merge the sets (as well as you can on a bus), but my stop was coming up. At the very least I should have gotten her number to continue the conversation, but I didn't think to at the time. Oh well.
Coming back from my last stop, I run the American Pie opener on an underage 2-set, just to get the opener canned, and hopefully find a natural transition from there.
Funny thing is, I wasn't even planning on going sarging today.
P.S. These were just the notes I jotted down as a sort of mental shorthand. If anybody's curious about the actual routines, let me know.
