She says the movie looks dumb; you suddenly agree. She tests you with a little attitude; you apologize for nothing.
You think you're being easy to get along with. She reads something else entirely: a man with no edges. Nothing to hold on to. No friction, no tension, no reason to wonder what he really thinks.
The "22 Rules" taught me to push back — playfully, calmly, without needing her approval. Strange things happened after that.
Your buddy Dave has been single for three years and thinks "hey u up" is a valid strategy. Your other buddy Mike just got dumped and told you to "just be yourself."
You showed them her text. You asked them to decode the emoji. You drafted four responses and sent the screenshot to the group chat for a vote.
She's been waiting forty minutes.
Put the phone down. Stop crowdsourcing your love life. Type something that sounds like you. Hit send. Then go do literally anything else with your evening.
That part cracked me up. When I first clicked the link I was under the assumption it was a video regarding some national guard and emergency responders taking supplies from Wal-Mart I'd seen earlier - which is legal (in states of emergency the authorities have very extended powers to 'commandeer' anything they see as being needed)... However, tennis shoes don't seem to be something that would be very important. Absolutely amazing to see something like that... now I can understand why the Wal-Mart's in my area have been closing at 10pm each night.
diablo,
That sentence contains at least five follow-up questions she WANTS you to ask. Where in Florida? What brought you here? How long have you been in the area? What do you miss? How does it compare to here?
She handed them to you on a silver platter. And you said, "Oh cool. I come here every week. I love this band. Ummm... pretty crowded tonight."
She smiled politely. Nodded. And never texted you back.
I was that guy for years. Talking too much. Listening too little. Panicking about my next sentence while she was literally feeding me the answers.
Then I found 22 rules that fixed the whole thing. Rule number one: shut up and listen. She'll tell you exactly what to say.
The fact that looting was so obvious and rampant - I mean, kids were riding around on bicycles in the store grabbing whatever they wanted - yet the officer had the nerve to say she was just "looking for looters".
