Vegas FR Journal

Tues Feb 10

Nothing happened today.

Sunday night, after getting home from XS, I couldn't sleep. Think I worked myself into such a state that my adrenalin was still going. Decided to take tonight off and rest.

Wed Feb 11

Somewhat caught up on sleep, but not 100%. Plan tonight was to go to Surrender.

A short digression first...

Being the first week of my vacation, there's tons of things I've been meaning to get around to, one being learning how to do compound exercises such as the deadlift properly. There's a local gym in town that does personal training with focus on olympic lifts, so I signed up for a session. It was fuckin intense. The instructor, who was training for the olympics at one point, really emphasized correct form and posture. My posture is pretty horrible, due to years of sitting at a comptuer (my job) and pronating my shoulders. I had actually read an article in Men's Journal last month titled "Sitting is the new smoking". I'm becoming aware of how bad IT or any computer work is for your long-term health. So my goal in doing these sessions, which are not cheap, was not only to get stronger and have a good body, but to counter the negative effects of my work on my body.

We dropped the amount of weight I was lifting (which was already pathetically low lol), but he made me lift it with perfect form. Turns out this is really really hard! I felt muscles in my back and other places that felt like they hadn't been used in years! The session was great, and has changed the way I train for the better.

One thing that I got out of this, that I think applies to game, is my coach told me that if you look for short cuts you may get some benefit short-term but long-term it will come back and bit you in the ass. The coach told me "make it as hard as possible, that will get you the most benefit". LOL this guy whould hit it off great with Ozzie. I thought about this alot that day, and how looking for "tricks" or "tactics" to pull a girl may actually get you sex, but does it really benefit you in the long run? I'm in the game for meeting and banging hot girls, sure, but it goes deeper for me. My goal is to transform into a truly cool guy who gives value, whether I'm talking to the hottest girls & coolest guys in the club, or just some regular dudes. If it's not a win-win with the girl, I'm not interested.

Onwards to Surrender...

Plan was to meetup with my Israeli wing from XS Sunday. I got there early however and got in line. Turns out the guy in front of me is another wing, but he's talking to the girls in front of him (one of whom has a super hot pair of legs I have trouble taking my eyes off of). Eventually they bounce to the girls line and I tap my friend on the shoulder. He's a good guy, but we don't wing well together since he's hard-core Mystery Method (yes, still). We get in and go our separate ways. Turns out my Israeli wing is inside and we meetup. Decide to hit the casino as the club's still empty.

Walking through the hotel lobby I open 2 girls from Detroit with the cyclone. Talk with them for a few minutes, pull in my Israeli wing and introduce him as my "swim buddy". Chat for a few more miutes but their friends come and pull them away. A few mins later walking through the corridor connecting Wynn & Encore I open a girl passing by with a hi-5. The conversation continues as she's walking in her direction and we're walking in the opposite. She's actually turned around almost yelling...I should have stopped her at the hi-5 or did a 180 and followed her.

However, I'm feeling good...like I got some momentum. So we re-enter the club. I see a blonde HB9 wearing a sexy dress (HBSexyDress)...I saw her in the lobby actually, somewhat a jaw-dropping sight. She's with two 'meh' girls and a guy is talking to them. I hesitate for a second then I go in. The guy disappears. The girl is very receptive, her friends arent' cockblocing...I'm thinking "wow, I'm having a good night". She mentions she's a dancer but won't go into details. I mention I won't be staying out late which she poo-poos, and then she suggests I take her number (she lives in Vegas). I replied "well, if you twist my arm, sure...". She doesn't really flinch and I'm telling myself "just get her # man", so I do.

So this kind of rattled me...got into my head, like "this club is small I don't want her to see me getting blown out or looking uncool", so I left. On the way home I realized...wait, is this girl an escort? It was a bit too easy. I realize I fucked up by leaving, whether she's an escort or not...WTF? I need to learn from this and say on course...there were some pretty hot girls there, missed opportunities.

Thurs Feb 12

Hit the gym, did some intense shoulder presses and deadlifts with perfect form, followed by a yoga class. I carried the intensity mindset into the yoga class and stretched my body to its limits...felt really really fucking good.

Texted HBSexyDress asking if she was free Friday. She replies "yes" in < 1 min. Hmm...setup a date for Friday night.

Asked my consigliere "The Kenny" about HBSexyDress...he was pretty sure she wasn't a hooker. We set the Vegas odds at 4:1. Plus since when do hookers #-close anyway???

Got worried about being tired for the date Friday, so stayed in tonight (mistake mistake).

Fri Feb 13

HBSexyDress texts me asking if it's still on. I say yes. She then replies saying we need to discuss "business details" first. Fuck fuck fuck. Hooker city. I guess they are number closing now. The hints were there but she was a bit subtle about it I think...I guess I need to tweak my hooker radar. BTW, $1K for "drinks & fun". At least she was high-end lol.

So I'm free tonight. Have 4 friends from LA in town, community guys and one-time wings, so I meet up with them for lobby & strip game. 5 guys doing strip game...yeah right. In Bellagio I open a couple girls playing slots. 2nd one is very receptive. I sit down & we chat. Her friend comes from the other side but sees me and goes back. My girl moved here from Kansas, danced, at Spearmeant Rhino for a few months...ok, see where this is going? I # close her, but after leaving delete it. I'm pretty sure she's an escort. Jesus. I'm older and dress well, I guess I'm good hooker bait or something lol.

Metup with a guy I've winged with briefly before (Wing 'M'), and head to Marquee. It's Valentine's Day night!

We try to pull some girls from the casino into the club just to appease his promoter buddies, but we aren't having much luck. So we eventually head in. It's pretty good. We're lingering on the patio when a sexy brunette walks by, slowly & looking confused. I stop her and tell her she looks amazing or something to that effect. She says she's looking for her friends (damn if I had a dollar for every time I've heard this). I tell her that her odds of finding them are better if she stays in one place as they will eventually walk by. She doesn't seem to understand the concept lol. Starts to walk off and I try  to keep her but no go.

Wing 'M' and I are standing on the patio minutes later when a familiar-looking guy walks up to me...holy crap it's 'B' from my Muay Thai class! And he's with 'C' also from my class, and a bunch of girls. Apparently their friend is having a bachelorette party. We chat for a bit, then I start talking to his cousin, a cute girl visiting from CA. It's boring at first but then we hit on travel and turns out we've both visited Bulgaria. Eventually they head off to another part of the club, but the girl gives me a big hug as she leaves.  

This has the potential to be a really good night, but then something happens with my wing 'M'. I was actually going to write up a detailed segment about this, but eventually decided it's not worth it. Suffice to say it was an issue with "boundaries", and I decided in the end to leave and go home. My mistake was letting this ruin my night, but I felt my only other option was to confront him directly about it in the club, which also probably would've ruined the night. Oh well. In the words of Ari Gold: "Treat it like bad pussy...forget you ever smelled it, and move on!". So I'll just move on. Kinda sucks tho as this guy had the potential to be a solid wing...he had game and we were on the same wavelength with many other things.

Day

Hit the mall solo to do some day game. Goal: 10 approaches. If I had the balls as a middle-aged man to approach 18yo chicks dressed in volleyball shorts shopping with their moms...I would have hit 10 within minutes. Unfortunately I was lacking those kind of balls today...but my god there was some young talent here today.

A cute girl walks by me as I spy another one in the distance...I decide to 180 and follow the one that just passed. I manage to stop her with a somewhat direct opener. She tells me her name...my eye contact is good but she looks away, then as I start asking her something she starts to move away.  I stand my ground trying to pull her back with vibe & presence, but she says she has to get back to work. I say "I was hoping for more than a 5 second conversation", which I thought was pretty funny actually. I turned to try to find the 2nd girl, but she was long gone.

Night

Meetup with my Israeli wing "Geo". He's been growing on me, cool & fun dude. Our plan is to hit XS, get a stamp, then head to Life, hit it up for an hour, then return to XS.

We're in XS early, it's pretty empty. I see a girl standing by herself so go approach. Told her something like I noticed she was alone and my friend & I decided to adopt her until her friends returned. She laughed. Turns out...she's from Brasil, just got into town yesterday for 5 days, and her 2 friends are up in the room sleeping so she's here alone. Wow. We chat for a bit, and I bring her over to meet my wing "Geo". (I managed to move a girl in the club, finally!). Geo takes over for a bit but doesn't try to overwhelm me...he's actually a great wing. While he's talking to her and she's looking at him, I get a chance to look her over more closely...she's a bit older actually, cute, but not really what I'm going for. And she works as a judge in Brasil...lol. Also she's got a ring so she may be married but I'm not sure. Geo passes her back to me and we talk more, but I'm not ready to pull her now (it's 11pm only) and she's not really what I'm looking for (see below). We whatsapp-close her and head to Life. As we're leaving the club there's a river of girls walking in to the club. hmm

Life @ SLS is a very cool club, awesome soundsystem & lighting, but very dude-heavy. Upstairs near the bar I see a 20-something leggy blonde...now THIS is what I'm looking for!! I'm nervous but I go in with super-lamo opener. She replies, she says she's not in a good mood, when I ask why she says she's been drinking since 8 am. Oi veh. I hi-5 her and tell her she has amazing legs (which she does), she clasps my hand and starts rubbing & wiggling. Amazingly her 2 friends are not cockblocking. I mean if any situation calls for a legit cockblock it's when ur friend is shitfaced drunk right? lol Sadly, hot as she is, banging super-drunk girls is not my thing. I tell her to go to bed and eject. :)

We head back to Encore but Geo wants to grab a free drink in casino first. We try several slot machines but the waitresses are ignoring us. We try Wynn. We spent about 45 mins doing this. I've lost all momentum at this point, the vibe seems to be gone, and I don't feel like I can head back into super-high-energy XS and do anything in the state I'm in. I hate to abandon my swim buddy but I feel like I'm just done. So I let Geo know and head home to rest & fight another day.

Quick analysis of this: we fucked ourselves tactically. Got momentum going then squandered it. Wasted night. I should have taken charge and led...either saying fuck this let's go in the club, or buying Geo a drink, or hitting a bar with blackjack games where we can get a drink in minutes. Not sure why I didn't...just felt like I was in the follower role and didn't step up and take action to kick the night back into gear. Gotta learn from this and not repeat this kind of self-imposed tactical blunder.

Goal was 10 day approaches and 25 night. Actual was 1 and 3. I've got my work cut out for me.

No day game today. Woke up late, day kinda flew buy, and then I had Muay Thai class 5-6pm. Got to the gym early to work out on my own a bit, then the class was pretty intense with alot of sparring. When I got home texted wing "Geo" and we decided on XS tonight. Figured it would be a relatively quiet Monday as it's a wind-down of a 3-day wknd, but when we get there we see a long line and lo behold Diplo is playing. haha

We got in on the early side and the club was still somewhat empty, but it filled up fast.  Geo & I head to the patio, he opens 2 pretty hot blondes. I stand nearby, eventually he brings them over and hands me the cuter one (IMO) and says she's my new girlfriend (Geo...u are a great wing man!). I say hello but they immediately excuse themselves to hit the bar to get drinks. Damn...I really liked my girl. 9/10 for me.

Geo & I split up and kinda did our own thing at first. I was feeling AA so decided to give myself a "mini-mission": I would walk from one end of the club to another, and count how many attractive girls I saw that weren't with guys and that I could approach. On the 2nd pass I would then go in the other direction and approach every group of girls I saw the first time. So the first quick pass resulted in 8 groups aka "sets". So I said to myself, "OK dude, you could already have 8 approaches under your belt and a sick momentum boost to your night". Took a few minutes but I eventually opened the first group HB-K. A few mins later girl sitting by herself HB-Brunette (here with her work colleague and a husband back home). Then I stalled out.

What happened was I saw a sexy blonde getting drinks at the bar with her friends. She had a short haircut that reminded me of Sharon Stone circa 199x. I didn't want to approach while they were getting drinks though, so I waited. And waited. Then I told myself this was stupid so I went to try to approach other girls. 5 mins later I see her again, now at a VIP table with the "cool" guys in the club...the ones wearing sneakers and baseball caps as opposed to shoes & collered shirts. Fuck. I hesitate, eventually she goes off near the dance floor and I walk by, then walk back and approach her. She's actually receptive...but...up close she's not nearly as pretty. In fact my tranny radar is starting to go off. I leave. The price you pay being a sucker for a fashionable haircut.

There are lessons for me above, pretty obvious I'm sure so won't belabor it here.

I manage a few more approaches. I'm trying to focus on approaching within 3 seconds of seeing a girl that catches my eye..the good ol' 3 second rule. I'm doing pretty good. Not quite < 3 sec but the leverage I'm putting on myself is definitely making me hesitate less. I was also trying to approach the hottest, most intimidating girls. Needless to say I got blown out mostly. Not even blown out, just kind of ignored after the first few seconds, which is worse. So that's what I need to work on somehow. A bit more on this below.

By 1am I've done 8 "committed" approaches, 2x what I've done any night since I've rebooted by game a week ago. Not great, but it's progress.

Geo & I hit the patio again. He opens 2 Asians. I'm not really into Asians, but one is cute. he leans over to me and says they are Japanese. I lived in Japan for 2 years and still speak decent Japanese so I start talking to one in her language, and she's very intrigued. Geo mini-isolates her girl and I talk with mine. She's actually quite attractive, but short 5'2" and maybe 100lbs (?). Some guys love this but I tend to go for taller girls with a bit more meat on them. But it's going so well I decide it's worth pushing. At some point she asks how old I am...I say 45 (which I am), she's 25 and this doesn't seem to phase her one bit. I ask her if she has a boyfriend...she says "No. I'm free. My friend is free too" as she points to her friend in the arms of Geo.  It's 1:30 and Diplo is about to go on, so I realize we are going to lose their attention fast (they are EDM fans). I facebook close her, and she's very concerned that I got it, asked me to double-check basically. They head inside when Diplo comes on, and Geo and I head out to the casino for a bit.

I wanted to try to pull this girl but I think it would have been a few more hours and alot of work. It woulda been challenging as well because of the language barrier (her English was minimal and my Japanese very rusty), and Geo & his girl had the same issue but worse. Plus Geo & I didn't really work out ahead of time how to pull a 2-set together, and I was pretty sure my girl wouldn't leave her friend alone. I know I should have tried, but I was pretty beat and didn't want to make the effort tonight. I'm realizing that even though I'm in way better health & have more energy than your average 45yo male, Vegas with it's "to 4am nightly" clubs will beat me down quickly if I don't pace myself. I could probably go deeper & later if I gave up my day activities like weightlifting & Muay Thai, but I'm not willing to do that at least right now. To me these are as essential for my self-development as going out is.

Self-feedback: I'd rather get a "real man's" blowout, like "fuck off" type shit, as opposed to approaching and just being ignored. I need to go in with more energy, louder...the old "Kool-Aid Man" mindset.

Question of the night: How do I give value in a super-high energy club without being a dancing entertainer-boy monkey?? I know ultimately this is something you "are" not something you "do"...but what actions can you "do" while learning that will take you to the place where you can just "be" this??

Accomplished two things tonight: got a few "real man's blowouts", and made out with a 5.

My wingman from my LA days, "Stray", was visiting for a few days. He's got a gf now but was still down for hitting up a club and approaching. He's also one of my few remaining drinking buddies, so even though I rarely drink these days tonight was going to be a non-sober night, prob my last one for a while too.

We pre-funk a bit at my place then get a cab to "Light" nightclub at Mandalay Bay. Personally I love this club...the lights & music, and the awesomely hot cirque-de-solei dancers. It's not as good as other places for quality & qty of chicks however. We enter early, it's pretty empty, so we gawk at the go go dancers for a few mins then head out to the casino to play some blackjack and get a few more drinks.

At the casino bar, 2 hot blondes sit down next two us but with one empty seat between. I really want to approach but I'd have to stand up and walk over. I also see they both have huge fat wedding rings. So I balk.  They leave. We finish our drinks and head back to the club, but I see them sitting down in the casino, and I go in. They're pretty stand-offish but hanging around. Eventually one leaves but I've almost got the other, HB M, hooked. I ask her age, guessing it's 30, but she's actually 41! Holy shit. I have not seen an > 40 girl look as good as her in...I can't even remember. She is a solid 8 in my book. We chat more but the friend is off somewhere and M is starting to pull away, I try to go for the # but no-go and she leaves.

Normally I wouldn't consider banging a married girl but I gotta admit this one woulda been an exception. I'm not gonna meet many more girls my age who look this good, at least not in the US.

Back in the club I do some more approaches. One hooks for a bit but dies off. I go up to another girl and just say "Hey, I think you're really hot are you interested?" She replies "No". Ouch. I weakly claw another group walking by but they take off my arm and say "No way". Double ouch. Rejection. It hurts and yet I feel like I'm doing something right.

The club isn't that great tonight so we bolt and hit the strip. I do some casino approaches but nothing sticks. Eventually we arrive at the Venetian about 2am. Approach 3 "meh" girls at a bar just cuz they're there. Irish accents. And Irish girls IME are pretty fun to just hang out and shoot the shit with, so we hang around. Two of them are not even close to being cute to put it kindly. The 3rd is about a 5. Beautiful eyes, nice hair, but a bit chubby. I gravitate toward her and mini-isolate. After about 10 mins I'm sensing she'll may be down for a make out, and Stray has the other 2 well occupied, so I tell my girl I want to show her something and to follow me out to the casino. She's confused but complies. On the way out I see a photo booth...a ha!! I take her in, and push her against the wall and just start making out. She's really into it, but after a few mins says she has a bf back home. I say ok and just keep making out. I can tell she's really torn lol. The thing is I didn't really want to do anything more with her cuz her body wasn't so great. She was a darn good kisser though.

Not a bad night, but the rejections still sting. I know that's part of the game but it does really mess with you. Indifference Threshold: need to keep this concept in mind. And for motivation...our busgirl at the restaurant we ate at earlier that evening was a tall, blonde, solid 10. The sporty looking kind that I love. Damn I could not take my eyes off her ass.

Hitup Marquee tonight. Was supposed to meetup with a new local wing, I wanted to arrive early however and get warmed-up approach-wise. I get in about 11, don't get water, don't go to the bathroom, don't go to the patio, but head directly to the dance floor with a goal of doing 5 approaches. I don't care what happens I just want to build some momentum for the night and the weekend.

My first approach I manage to get the girls attention, then a weak hi-5 followed by the most pathetic attempt at a twirl spin ever. She drops my hand and back-turns me. I don't even like the "twirl" move but I wanted to get physical and this was the most I could get myself to do. Second approach again I have the girls attention but her friend steps between us saying "no no no!". Third open is a couple of Korean girls...they don't speak much English, although they seem receptive. I couldn't take it anywhere though.  

One prop I'll give myself is that after the 2nd approach/cockblock I didn't run away to a different part of the dance floor. I stood right where I was and just started dancing. Of course my mind was saying "everyone saw that! They're laughing at you!". Of course this is nonsense but I felt it but managed to stand there and a few mins later opened the K-girls.

Things went to shit from here. I hit the patio, texted the wing I was supposed to meet. There were *alot* of girls there, but I started telling myself "wait until your wing arrives". I was never completely out of my head after the initial sets but instead of riding my momentum I stalled and just keep getting more and more in my head. I really hate going solo...I know it's the best way to learn but it is really really hard for me...I don't know how to have fun meeting strangers on my own. Need to fix this.

So the guy texts me 40 mins later saying he slept in and can't make it. Now I've essentially fucked myself. State crashed. Wandered a bit, went home. I take full responsibility for this...it's my job to take action, recognize where I'm at state-wise and manage it. And to not be distracted by people I may meet or who may or may not show up. 15 harsh blow-outs would have been a much better night.

Pickup my wing Geo who's leaving town Monday, and head to XS. Diplo is tonight should be insane. Geo wants to get some drinks so we hit the casino for a bit, prtend to gamble and get some drinks (I give mine to him as I'm not drinking). It's good to be chatting with a wing and warming-up, but I know I really should be doing lobby and casino game instead of sitting at a slot machine. I'm buidling the wrong kind of inertia.

Geo can't get into XS free and can't pay the cover so he heads to another club where he can get comped. Another wing from this forum wanted to meetup later but only for lobby/casino game, so seems I'm on my own again. I head in and head to dance floor like last night, but it's 80% dudes. There's actually a cute 2-set next to me but I freeze. Walk around a bit, out to the patio, but I am really in my head and just not feeling it at all. After about 30 mins I'm on the patio when a guy taps me on the shoulder...it's a local community guy "P". "P", IMO, is a very cool guy...the kind of dude where you think if he did *less* and dropped most game nonsense he'd be absolutely smashing. We chat a bit and a few minutes later our mutual friend/wing "C" shows up and we chat. I like these guys cuz they don't talk about game much. I'm feeling better just by virtue of conversing with some chill guys. They game but aren't "gamey".

I'm actually starting to feel pretty good when the new guy "N" shows up, he's in the casino. I head out to meet him but it takes about 20 mins to cut through the human jungle that is XS tonight. I make it out and meet "N" for the first time. He's cool. He's local, he approaches...I think we're gonna make good wings. He does a few casino sets but I'm still in my blah state. He takes off after a while and I head back into the club, but my inertia is still fucking me so I do shit and go home about 2am.

Well pretty much a shit weekend. I should add that Thursday I somehow managed to fuck-up my back which prevented me from working out Saturday, not to mention I was in mild pain Fri & Sat nights. This really was hard to let go of in my head, mostly because I hate missing workouts and knowing it's going to push me off course from meeting my goals.

It's Sunday, a new week. I just plan to start again and build up momentum for the coming weekend. I gotta be sure to hold my own reins and not let others take the steering wheel for the night when I know what I need to do to get warmed-up and have a good night.

---

One realization I made this weekend, watching a couple naturals game HB9s is Marquee, is I don't talk much. I freelance IT/WebDev, work from home, live alone, so I don't talk with anyone (except skype) most of the day. It's pretty anti-social and isolating. Watching the naturals I noticed the dude just kept talking, talking, talking...the million-dollar mouthpiece. I'm thinking WTF is he possibly saying?? lol I thought about this in concrete terms, like the average social, well-adjusted person probably has N number of words come out of his mouth in a typical day. For me, that number is like about 1%...or N/100 to get mathematical on your ass about it. If I could find a way to have 100x more conversations, literally increase the number of words I speak daily by a factor of 100, it would be a huge step in the right direction.