Today I had my third platonic meeting (seventh overall, sixth overall different person, second different platonic person). This one was special. I had exchanged a whopping 160 e-mails with this girl in almost 3 months without even talking to her on the phone. Plus, her original craig's list post had been about her being shy, and needing someone patient, etc. So I figured all of this would create for an interesting meeting. Would they cue the crickets chirping sound effects when we got together? After all, in every other meeting to this point, the girl had done over 90% of the talking, easily.
Well, surprisingly, this was no exception. This girl was as talkative as anyone I've ever met. And I've met some extraordinarily talkative people. Like the first Platonic, I wasn't nervous at all going into this one. We first said hello and talked for a few minutes, then hit some awkwardness: she said she was doing all of the talking and I was just staring. I completely drew a blank on anything to say in response, so that went on for another few seconds. It was okay though, because once the conversation resumed (she maybe asked a question to wake me up), it didn't let up for the next 2 hours 15 minutes or so. This girl considers herself shy?! I was expecting my female counterpart, but she seemed to be the opposite. Unbelievable.
Anyway, my inhibition level was between low and moderate. It's hard to tell, because she was doing about 99% of the talking. As a result, I wasn't sure what if anything I learned this time. So I decided to practice not obsessing over the interaction afterwards, and I was pretty successful with that. Hmm, what else? Hopefully we can meet up again and be friends, without any of the platonic-nature misunderstandings that I talked about yesterday. That would be awesome, because that would mean I would have a total of 2 offline friends. We'll see.
A seventh meeting...pretty cool, because when I started this thing I couldn't even imagine how I would get the ball rolling and actually try what I was writing about in the blog. I think I'm at a new stage now. At a minimum, I have little or no anxiety going into these meetings, so that helps me be able to do a lot of them, so that I can increase my social experience and comfort level as much as possible. The Simple Plan. Plus, I no longer feel the need to write out a list of conversation topics every time...I have a few things in mind, casually, no pressure.
Tonight I called up (without overthinking it or procrastinating) another girl from craig's list's platonic section, and arranged a tentative meeting for tomorrow. She mumbled something about being nervous tonight because we'd be meeting tomorrow. Oh goodness, why?! Even I am not nervous about it. Seems to suggest some more Platonic Misunderstanding madness. This even after I pointed out to her last phone call that I met her under the Platonic section of craig's list.
Craigslist.com is a useful tool for my Mission, so I am going to try to adopt the new strategy of tellling people from there that I am dating someone, from the get-go.
Speaking of which....I never gave you results from my fourth date. This time I decided to try e-mailing her afterwards, no phone. She wrote a good amount the last time she e-mailed me, so I think this one is still alive (as you'll recall, the date went better than the first three). I just sent her an e-mail asking her out to a concert next weekend, so...call it a milestone: it's the first time I've ever asked a girl out on a second date.
Well, surprisingly, this was no exception. This girl was as talkative as anyone I've ever met. And I've met some extraordinarily talkative people. Like the first Platonic, I wasn't nervous at all going into this one. We first said hello and talked for a few minutes, then hit some awkwardness: she said she was doing all of the talking and I was just staring. I completely drew a blank on anything to say in response, so that went on for another few seconds. It was okay though, because once the conversation resumed (she maybe asked a question to wake me up), it didn't let up for the next 2 hours 15 minutes or so. This girl considers herself shy?! I was expecting my female counterpart, but she seemed to be the opposite. Unbelievable.
Anyway, my inhibition level was between low and moderate. It's hard to tell, because she was doing about 99% of the talking. As a result, I wasn't sure what if anything I learned this time. So I decided to practice not obsessing over the interaction afterwards, and I was pretty successful with that. Hmm, what else? Hopefully we can meet up again and be friends, without any of the platonic-nature misunderstandings that I talked about yesterday. That would be awesome, because that would mean I would have a total of 2 offline friends. We'll see.
A seventh meeting...pretty cool, because when I started this thing I couldn't even imagine how I would get the ball rolling and actually try what I was writing about in the blog. I think I'm at a new stage now. At a minimum, I have little or no anxiety going into these meetings, so that helps me be able to do a lot of them, so that I can increase my social experience and comfort level as much as possible. The Simple Plan. Plus, I no longer feel the need to write out a list of conversation topics every time...I have a few things in mind, casually, no pressure.
Tonight I called up (without overthinking it or procrastinating) another girl from craig's list's platonic section, and arranged a tentative meeting for tomorrow. She mumbled something about being nervous tonight because we'd be meeting tomorrow. Oh goodness, why?! Even I am not nervous about it. Seems to suggest some more Platonic Misunderstanding madness. This even after I pointed out to her last phone call that I met her under the Platonic section of craig's list.
Craigslist.com is a useful tool for my Mission, so I am going to try to adopt the new strategy of tellling people from there that I am dating someone, from the get-go.
Speaking of which....I never gave you results from my fourth date. This time I decided to try e-mailing her afterwards, no phone. She wrote a good amount the last time she e-mailed me, so I think this one is still alive (as you'll recall, the date went better than the first three). I just sent her an e-mail asking her out to a concert next weekend, so...call it a milestone: it's the first time I've ever asked a girl out on a second date.
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