Flirting and passing

So for as long as I can remember it has always been fairly difficult for me to start a conversation with anyone I think is attractive or anyone I look up to...or quite frankly anyone who seems the least bit more confident then me.  That makes sense for a lot of reasons.  I wasn't confident or happy in who I was which just made it worse any time I would try to introduce myself.  Imagine, if you will, a train that is traveling somewhat slowly on a bridge.  That train then reaches the end of the bridge...unfortunately the conductor did not know that the bridge was not complete and the train goes tumbling into a ravine.  That is the image I used to get in my head, but this past weekend a lot has changed.  Now I am not saying that my low self esteem is cured but it is most certainly better then it was.  So here is what happened:

On Friday I went to Kowloon with my parents and about a half hour after we got there an attractive 26 year old woman sat down and her friend (also 26) stood next to her.  I took a deep breath and asked the one standing up if she wanted my seat or if she at least wanted me to push over so she could squeeze in another chair.  She thanked me but said she was fine.  After that initial exchange it just seemed easier and easier to find a way to enter in to their conversation.  As the night progressed I had both of them laughing hysterically, and I even went as far as to buy them drinks.  Well long story short, when it was time for them to leave they both said that I had made their nights and they hope the next time they come they will see me.  The best part was that I passed the whole time...and, well, they flirted back!

The next night we went out I stayed a bit longer then everyone else to talk to a waitress that I had been thinking about striking up a conversation with (not necessarily with the goal of getting in her pants or anything, more so I could practice talking to pretty girls).  Anyway I did end up talking to her and went back to my seat at the bar to finish my drink.  While sipping on my drink I had the wonderful fortune of having to two attractive women sit next to me (this time through the conversation I found out that they had kids...so they would not be in the cougar category yet but they were certainly in the MILF category!).  After having several exchanges a friend of their's said they finally got a table.  The women said that they would be right over and they ended up staying with me for a bit longer.  After their buddy came back over and gave them a nice reminder that he was sitting at the table all alone they said they would be right over.  After finishing their drinks they invited me over to their table.  And the rest is history.

So, like I said, I am not cured of low self esteem but it has increased about ten fold!