W Rizz | Sa 12/3

I pulled another "journal in bed" move and it went badly like always. Thankfully I woke up around 6 to wrap up and sleep properly, but I still had to wake up again at 12:30 without much sleep. I wanted to make sure I was ready for lunch since Eric said he would pick me and Gigi up for it after volunteering on the morning, but that meant not having the best sleep.

We were behind schedule, but it was great chatting on the way to lunch. Somehow the topic of my Hinge profile came up, which was nice since Eric met his girlfriend Mindy there and can use his experience to help me. Both he and Gigi recommended that I defer to the advice of girls when it comes to the profile, which makes sense. They also expressed how they think using Hinge could both be fun, since the early stages are dates and chatting, and helpful for me to see what expectations I should have with girls in general.

Eric even gave a timeline of what dates can look like: first coffee or boba, then food, then maybe something fancier or unique. This prompted Gigi to recall how Anthony invited Trish to volleyball as a Hinge date, which I never knew and surprised me. It turned out that she was already friends with James, who was even trying to invite her to volleyball himself, so thankfully she managed to integrate into the group since.

Somewhere along the drive the topic of my rizz came up too, and it was helpful hearing Eric's opinion that having rizz and being a cinnamon roll are not mutually exclusive. I suppose that having confidence in oneself is never bad, so long as it's not overconfidence, but that second part may be easier said than done. An interesting point they brought up is the idea that rizz didn't have to be intentional and that by just being tall and having fun in public I have "W rizz", at least according to Eric. I've always gotten self-conscious when I notice people starting at me while I enter somewhere (I kind of was last night in the bars), but now I'm warming up to the idea that getting looked at isn't bad and can even be good.

Lunch with Ban and Brent was fun too. It seemed like they got plenty of time to chat while waiting for the rest of us, and we had an interesting talk about fighting animals, visiting zoos and aquariums, and reading manga compared to watching anime.

After leaving hot pot for lunch, Brent got the idea to take us to the crepe shop in Jusgo, which was a huge throwback to when I visited there after Asia World Market was just built. It was surreal seeing the same man there more than a decade later, and the crepe I got (uncomfortably named "the choker") was as tasty as I remember them.

After the crepes we walked around the grocery store and I got to marvel at the facelift it's gotten since I visited it in the early days. The group had some fun squishing a bunch of the candies and making dick size jokes with the produce, and I found some Chinese choco-pie equivalent for $1/box. That deal seemed so good that I was hesitant and only got one, but I think they may have been near their sell-by date. Despite saying that I would, I didn't get any more boxes since it was about time for us to leave in order to drop Gigi off at the airport for her flight to New York.

The drive back to Dallas was also great conversation. Eric shared about his experiences with Hinge: finding Mindy, when he likes to "go exclusive" with a match, and how he prefers the app over others. The conversation somehow turned into a discussion of personal timelines to get married and have kids, how we can make that timeline anything we want, and a good mindset to approach when compromising with a partner.

That last point came up on the topic of volleyball, which Eric thinks would be fantastic if the girl I was dating also liked since it would prevent me and her from having to compromise between our hobby and spending quality time together. In the moment I was going say that it doesn't matter if the girl I was seeing played or not, but I had to admit that the idea of playing together sounded like a dream. Same kind of goes for being with a tall girl, but much less so.

I also can't lie that I see girls a little differently when they pass dimes or hit hard when playing, and don't get me started on when I see one get a block or at least go for one in earnest. I don't know why, but it seems like "oh she's good" gets conflated with "oooh she bad" in my head. As strange as it is to admit, I suppose I also kind of like the "apex predator/fearless" type, but again I can't say why or if it's for the right reasons.

Around then we took a moment to recognize what a stroke of luck it was for us to all meet. It's only been a matter of months, but we reminisced on how Eric and I first met when we started going to volleyball, Gigi moved to Dallas recently, and she may not have gone to LAN last year with the group that she did and wouldn't have met the friends. I guess we're lucky to have been in the same place at the same time and with the right connections to meet. It's surprisingly serendipitous, but that honestly got me thinking about the alternate timeline when I got to keep talking with the 6'1" girl from NGHTMRE and I couldn't think about much else.

At that point we made it into Love Field Airport, which is very nice, dropped Gigi and her massive suitcases off, and Eric and I talked about volleyball before he dropped me off. It was great chatting about being a more well-rounded player, skills I'm picking up as a middle, and the group's and Eric's intent to join DIVA soon. The conversation had me excited to play tomorrow and motivated to progress on my Hinge profile, but I played Left 4 Dead for a while before working out and didn't get around to that profile. Now I plan on waking up early to take a walk among the trees, which I wish I could do with a friend for the photo opportunity, cleaning and doing laundry, and possibly finally trying a DIY haircut.