Chicago
03-30-2015, 02:15 PM
Oh...here's my solo trip to Chicago last time...I never posted this before. First solo game trip ever.
tldr: Went solo travel to Chicago for 3 days and nights, got SDL, met a couple forum guys, missed a couple forum guys. h3ltrsk3ltr and I ran some night game, I showed him my patented napkin game. Great time.
Me: Divorced, have a regular fwb at home, I’m far from an approach machine and never really done the “x number of approaches”, and I’m 5’9”. Wearing my perfectly fitting jeans, cowboy boots, tight black button up shirt...fly even without a suit. Maybe next time.
While I have traveled solo for business, this weekend I finally took my first solo travel trip for the primary purpose of gaming and meeting up with forum guys. I like reading about these trips from other guys, so I’ll try to summarize my experience with the hope it encourages other guys to finally grow a pair and get out there. This write-up is detailed on purpose, so guys who are thinking about doing can read it as sort of a step by step guide.
My goals: Travel solo, meet at least one RVF’er, approachapproachapproach. I had no “goal” of banging a chic because that’s not something I can control.
Itinerary: I took a bus for the first time from my city to there, stayed at an airbnb, then back home Sunday (this was a couple months ago).
There’s an interesting story behind the airbnb, but I won’t go into that here. Suffice to say I stayed with a really quiet, reserved, mousy (the best word to describe her) 38 yo divorced woman. Not ugly or fat, skinny and ok, but not somebody I’m gonna bang. The kinda woman who would bump up a point or two with a makeover and some confidence (yes I said it). Or maybe another way, her bad personality and lack of fashion-sense brings her down at least a point.
Friday:
Friday morning I get up and walk around the neighborhood. My neighborhood is an awesome place to stay in Chicago, a hipster-ish area ripe for my demographic. I check out the gym I’m where gonna work out and get a feel of the places.
It’s a beautiful day, sunny and ~50’F, so I decide to implement my only tentative agenda item with a visit to the Sears Tower, now Willis Tower. I just gotta get out, and if it takes doing a tourist thing to get me warmed up, fine. Before leaving I mention to my roommate if she wants to go…”sure, yeah that sounds fun”. I actually didn’t think she’d want to, but whatever, I’m always interested in getting to know someone, and this is an olive branch to the woman who I’m sharing living space with for the next three days.
We jump on the train downtown, get to the tower and find it’s a 2 hour wait. Shocking, I guess it is the day after Christmas and it’s nice out. Anyway, instead of seeing sights, my mousy roommate and I go to meet her old college friend (guy she wants) who manages a bar on the north end of Mag Mile. Sounds good, I’ll probably get a free cocktail. Plus, again, the weather is great and I’m invigorated by the hustle and bustle.
We finally made it to this bar-restaurant, she tracks down her old friend, and we end up at the bar, her chatting up old times with the manager of the bar, me sipping my free Bulleit Bourbon Manhattan, when...kiss-my-grits, a helpless lizard plops down next to me.
Same Day Lay:
Keep calm heavy, and game on...the Gods of opportunity and luck have smiled down upon me. I don’t even really have to approach, so no sweat, I can go on autopilot from the start. My spidey sense will tell me if she’s hot or cold, if she’s digging the ol’ heavy. And right now she just walked in *alone* to a busy bar downtown Chi-town. Sniff sniff, I smell an upset.
But who knows, so I’ll just chat her up. Quick assessment. She has a Galaxy S5 with broken screen…
“Nice broken screen, I had the same thing happen to my S3”...testing the waters.
She turns to me and starts chatting...a good sign.
“Oh you have this phone?”
“Well the S3, but yeah, I replaced it and use the broken one as a backup. Same thing as yours, shattered screen, but the ol’ girl still works fine.”
Convo about the frustration of owning a phone that works perfectly but has a cracked screen.
The occasional back of fingers touch to her arm. She’s touching back when sharing stories.
Mousy roommate is going home. I tell her I’ll be back at some point.
Long story short I spend all evening with the girl, bar hopping, back to my neighborhood, sushi, downstairs club, second chance store, then my place. Ya'll know what happened next.
Saturday:
Saturday morning she leaves before I want to get up. I sleep in, slow to get around, but eventually make it to the gym for a workout. Today will be forum meetup day. h3ltrsk3ltr wants to meet up, and I’m not letting a lizard get in the way of that like it did last night.
Gym, finish off a good cigar on my front stoop, shower, then 5 minute walk to meet up with h3ltrsk3ltr. Feelin good...
I ask the chic sitting next to us if she plays tetris (we’re at an arcade bar). Nope, she doesn’t. I cheers another girl next to us and after brief chat finds she’s with her boyfriend. Cool.
Does that count as an approach? Just cheers-ing a girl, or asking her a stupid question. Yes. It’s my way of avoiding approach anxiety, because who doesn’t want to cheers or answer a simple question.
The Napkin Game:
We finish a couple beers, bounce for some food, then bounce to a small bar nearby where I show him my napkin game. I’m sorta joking, as I told him it’s not really a game, just something I’ve used before to open and flirt with chics.
The napkin game consists of a napkin, a pen, and knowledge of the game tic-tac-toe. You get the idea. Incorporate little flirty notes and teases, have the bartender pass the napkin back and forth if you want, but that’s the basics.
The napkin game was working on a hottie, but we decided to bounce again to this pizza place / bar. h3ltrsk3ltr has some balls, just cold approached a group of girls. He blew through the opening awkwardness and we chatted them up, but they were waiting for a table and got buzzed to go eat. Good stuff. Dude has some solid presence and frame.
Downtown and end of the night:
We then bounced downtown to a bar I like...the Public House. We made some “approaches”, again, just chatting chics up in bars, bounced around, met up with Snowplow down in Old Town.
It was late by that time and we mostly just sat and chatted.
h3ltrsk3ltr is legit. Great guy, interesting story. Hung out with him all evening, we had a blast. If you can meet up with him do it.
Sunday headed home despite temptation to stay another day.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
