I haven't logged my approaches lately. I've been driven to get stuck into that after missing out on quite a few opportunities this year. My commute to work involves a walk along the boundaries of a nearby university where I'd pass by at least a few attractive ones.
I was on campus earlier this afternoon and headed out to one of the common areas on a balcony. I sat myself across a somewhat attractive blonde.
She looked up at me and we held eye contact.
"Excuse me, can you mind my stuff for a bit while I go to the loo?" I asked.
"Sure," she said. I'd left my mobile there so I was too worried it getting pinched to say anything else to her.
I came back, thanked her.
"No worries," she said without even looking up.
Our location wasn't helpful with carrying on the approach. She had her back to the balcony glass and I was at a bench facing her metre and a half away. I wrapped up my work and left soon after.
I went to my lecture and sat next to a girl I walked past earlier on in the hallway. She's got that attractrive dark and pale brunette look that I used to be into, a little like Jennifer Connelly, wearing a grey jumper and Vans sneakers. She smiled at me briefly.
A guy from Socialist Alternative was handing out leaflets for a refugee protest and his colleague made an announcement about it a few seconds after.
"In a way, I feel for those guys," I turned to Jennifer Connelly after the SA chick finished her spiel in front.
"What, the Marxist people or the refugees?" She asked squarely.
"What do you think blah blah...which answer should I give to sound less douchey?" We laughed a bit.
"I think they sort of deserve it on account of their obnoxiousness blah blah," she suggested.
"I should tell them blah blah," I can't remember what I said but she laughed.
It was a Pol. Sci. class and the lecturer mentioned something about the gender difference in STEM fields. I turned to Jennifer Connelly again.
"This is where I feel terrible," I said.
"Why?"
"Because it's what I study."
She smiled and turned to face the front.
I got the impression that she didn't want to exchange to much chatter during the lecture itself so I didn't bother. As we were readying to leave, I opened her again, "She was really struggling to catch everyone's attention wasn't she?"
"Yeah I think it was because people were really starting to leave and she kinda gave up," she supposed.
"They really should have thought about that in lecturer school," I joked.
"Ha-ha, lecturer school," she echoed.
"Especially when really getting stuck into overthrowing the patriarchy."
She said something I don't recall and moved on, then greeted a friend of hers when she got the aisle. She didn't even say bye or swap names.
Shortly after, a few floors down, I looked to settle down at one of the hallway study spaces and my chosen desk was covered with the notes of the brunette occupying it.
She was above average looks, and wearing a black spaghetti-strap onesie.
"Excuse me, may I?" I asked, gesturing there.
"Yeah, sure!" she cleared half the space.
I laid out my things and got to work. After a while, I glanced up and hissed,"No texting!" upon her playing with her mobile. She giggled. Nothing really happened for the next 10-ish minutes beyond her sneezing, I muttering,"Bless you", and her thanking me.
She was yawning, checking her mobile and glancing around occasionally, so I seized the next time she did by going,"You look like you really need a coffee."
"Haha yeah I think I've just been really out of it lately, really ill," she chuckled.
"Shit, I'd better get away," I feigned a startled expression and made to spring from my seat. "What are you studying from? Study fatigue?"
"Hah sort of
blah blah," she replied somewhat laboriously. "Had a huge week
blah blah."
"Too many big nights?" I suggested. *
"That and too much study."
"I feel really lazy not doing much at all this week," I somewhat retorted.
"Yeah I've been a bit like that too
blah blah," she said.
"What are you studying?" I knew the answer; her laptop was angled towards me.
"Marketing; what about you?"
"Mechanical engineering," I gestured towards my computer.
"Sounds fun," she said in an ironic way. "do you enjoy it?"
"Up to the point where I find the whole aspect of using hard maths to draw fancy models to be a complete pain the arse," I pulled a face, she laughed. "How about marketing?"
"It's really chill, I can't complain, like there's not a whole lot of work," she cocked her head towards her notes.
"Yeah, it's like one essay per semester per subject isn't it," I said with a slight droll edge.
We exchanged a few sentences about nightlife.
"Yup," she agreed rapidly.
"It sounds like the sort of course I'd be dying to switch to once I've had a gutful of calculations," I muttered.
"I bet! What year are you in?" She asked.
"Final; I'm guessing you're second?" I threw the question back at her.
"Nah, first!
Blah blah"
"Holy crap," I expressed genuine surprise (I think she said something about contact hours earlier). "You're going to want to drop out once they add a few more contact hours by third year."
"Haha true blah blah," she concurred. "My degree is only three years though. I think I'm going to take next year off to travel."
"Oh whereabouts to? It's a hassle with me working heaps to save up to study in Europe after this," I said.
(Damn, I should've mentioned that I'd had travelled/studied abroad already as a DHV.)
"Where'll you be studying in?" I misheard her "where".
"Where or what?"
"What and what," she clarified.
"Probably Denmark to do industrial design," I said.
"Oh that sounds cool," she said genuinely.
"After that much time doing engineering and finance I'm hoping so"
(she nodded) "Yourself?"
"I've got family living overseas and friends around, so I might be doing Europe too blah blah."
"Which means you've got a parent from somewhere else, and a grandparent elsewhere?" (I should've cold-read her background here :/ .)
"Yeah I've got family in Scotland and England
blah blah," I forgot the specifics of her family details.
We chatted a little about family and friends overseas. I segued that into the following,"That'll be when you have to start finding a job that pays more than Coles or Woolworths blah blah."
"Oh I need to get around to that," she laughed.
I cold read her job, we chatted about that topic after I commented something like,"I'll that part about our twenties where we worked shitty jobs to save up for Europe." and she asked me what I wanted to do with my degrees.
We went back to our respective notes. After a brief moment, she asked,"What're you doing for Easter?"
I pulled a face,"I'm really not sure because my housemate wants me to go to Inner Varnika, but I might be playing at Confest, so either one of those."
"I've got
no idea what any of those are," she drew a complete blank.
"You really aren't that
au fait with the festival scene are you?" I laughed.
She shook her head.
"OK, have you heard of Burning Man?" She nodded. "One of them's like a much more compact version of that, the other's techno, sort of like Rainbow Serpent, minus the hippies."
"I see
blah blah," and in response to me asking likewise: "We were thinking of going to
blah blah and doing
blah but we're having my auntie come over from England so we might have to stick around
blah blah."
"It sucks having to scrap holiday plans when you have family coming from overseas
blah blah," I said.
"Yeah but if they're only coming once a year
blah blah."
"Haha sure and plus their kids are coming over too so it'll be great blah blah."
"Kids?" I thought she'd said 'grandma' and not 'auntie' at first.
"They're gay," she confirmed.
"Bet it's great having the nieces and nephews over, or is it cousins?" I pressed on with the topic.
We chatted a bit more about the semantics of those words, and implied that I was the eldest sibling.
"Do you have brothers or sisters?" She asked, after a minute of silence.
"Yeah, I indicated that, a little brother and sister."
We bantered on that topic pretty heavily and funnily, she asked me how old my sister was upon my saying something, I replied and followed it up with a joke about my expectations of them; she explained at one point,"My brother's such a rebel
blah blah he's got a way with girls
blah blah, he would answer back, 'shut up slut!'" to me blah blah."
To which I'd tease her with, "Oh yeah he really took after you/you were setting such an example weren't you
blah blah."
"Nah I haven't!
Blah blah," She replied defensively
"Don't be shy! It's every reason why I'd wished I'd had a big sister blah blah," was my rejoinder. The tone of our conversation became a bit more fun and light-hearted. At one point, I said something about her brother watching
Gossip Girl on Netflix after bedtime and she laughed.
Somehow, she got me to guess what sort of girl she was.
"Straight edge," I said rather sombrely after appraising her appearance. I had a bit of a mental blank, otherwise I'd have added a bit more.
"Haha I am not straight edge!" She cried out incredulously, "Blah blah I might look like that but I'm like the highlight whenever we go out."
"You'd better be," I shot back humorously. "I don't do boring, I can't believe I was with my first girlfriend for as long as we were."
She laughed and we exchanged talk about the sort of person we'd like to bring back to my parents. I compared her to my sister and we laughed.
Eventually I guessed which school she went to; our conversation was going that way, and after a lull, she put on a windcheater and I asked if that was her Valedictory jacket.
"Oh God no, I wouldn't want to be seen wearing my Valedictory jacket!" She had exclaimed.
"Which school did you go to?" she asked.
"Brighton Grammar," I responded. I explained where it was, we chatted a bit about religion without getting too topical.
I can't remember what else we talked about, but after a lull a few minutes later, she started packing up her things.
"Places to go?" I looked up from my machine.
"Yeah, got a tute," she said.
"Don't kill yourself after tomorrow."
"That's if I'll even be around then."
"Let's get coffee after class then if you'll be," I offered.
"I'm not sure 'cause I've got a really full day of classes," she said. She made to leave. "Well, it was nice meeting you."
That was about an hour before I started writing this. She didn't even offer her number nor did we swap names, so I wonder what I did. I know I felt really jumpy for some reason during those last two approaches and maybe both girls sensed those vibes? She's probably a 7, not hugely stunning but cute enough.
* I don't recall everything we said verbatim, so I truncated bits of the last approach, and mixed up the order of what we said.