FRIDAY EVENING, DUPONT CIRCLE. Xenakis had his first night out in Washington, DC since his instruction two weeks prior in San Francisco. Visits included a billiard hall, a bookstore, and a hookah bar, says the associated press.
He was joined by two skilled wingmen. One was a friend from New York who Xenakis admires for his compassion for people, long term relationship experience, knowledge of sexuality, and interest in David Deida. He was also joined by a man who, with his deafness, molded himself into a charming PUA and became minor character in "The Game," by Neil Strauss. "I'm really like these guys," Xenakis says. "I hope I can be better friends with both of them and go out on a regular basis. We share similar values and goals, and we all have something unique to offer each other."
Their first stop was Cosi. A girl and her mom were roasting marshmellows and making smores on Cosi's renouned mini-stoves. Xenakis had never seen such a contraption, and asked them what it was. In not much time he was sitting with them, and the mother, being of Missouri hospitality, offered him a marshmellow. "We talked about work and travel. She lamented the conservative nature of Missouri; I gave a lesson on how to find the volume of a pyramid," Xenakis remembers. "Though the funniest part of Cosi was when my David Deida friend was hit on by a transvestite."
Next the trio went to Buffalo Billiards, but ended up just chilling and ordering drinks. "It was great just hanging out with them. I wrote the history of my love life on a napkin."
At Kramer Books, the next stop that evening, Xenakis opened a geeky German physicist from North Carolina in a yellow pique polo shirt entertaining his parents for the weekend with a trip to DC. They spoke German for twenty minutes until Xenakis got bored and/or could no longer understand him.
At the hookah bar, two girls pulled the gay card on Xenakis and his David Deida friend. "I took it as a compliment," Xenakis gloats. Then David Deida started a conversation with a beautiful Palestinian lady sitting on the other side of them. Xenakis entertained five other people sitting with her. "One of the girls wants to be a teacher. I appreciated her idealism."
The last conversation of the evening (with the exception of the drunk guy on the street who works at the country club) was with the bouncer of the hookah bar. "I can't remember much about him," Xenakis apologizes.
On Saturday evening Xenakis was too tired to go out, so he researched "interesting" things about people on facebook.
On Sunday Xenakis went to Border's Books and Cafe. Xenakis recounts: "First, I tried to strike up a conversation with a twelve year old in the children's section. Bad idea. Then I got too nervous to approach another girl in short short jeans. But I made up for it with two solid conversations in the travel section. It seems like all I have to do is walk up to someone in the travel section and ask them where they are going, and I'll get a wonderful conversation out of it. The first girl I talked to went on and on about her travels in Eastern Europe.
I did not realize how sexy the second lady was until almost the end of our conversation. She (or her friends) had been all over the world. A soon to be substitute teacher, I warned her to stock her pockets with candy before going to school every day. When I reached out my hand to say goodbye and ask for her name, she did not shake my immediately. She had books in both her hands. I kept my hand suspended in mid air until she put down her books. 'It's so nice nice,' she said, 'no one ever shakes my hand.' I did not go back to get her phone number.
"On Tuesday I went back to Borders to see if she was still there, but alas she was not.
"So I talked to an older woman, a personable woman from Peru. Her daughter had an inspiring math teacher. I could tell that she cared for her a lot. I told her of my travels in Mexico, and why I couldn't speak Spanish. The conversation lasted a long time with multiple threads. We both were eager to share our experience of school and travel.
"A good week! If I can average one good conversation a day with a stranger, I think I am well on my way to a more fullfilling social life. Just talking with people is so uplifiting, and I look forward to the day when I can truely appreciate people and take my relationships to an even deeper level."
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