My biggest issue wrt flirting vs. hitting on, was the receiver thinking the former was the later.

What was described up above by both ita and erin was almost always interpreted as having intent. No way you do that and not have many men I know not think you wanna hook-up.

And for me anyway, flirting loses all fun when a guy I don't wanna sleep with starts acting like the hook-up is ON.

Hmm. That can be a problem. I usually make it so eye-rollingly OBVIOUS that most guys pick up on it.

And I usually can pick up with the first few flirty pitches if a guy (or gal -- I'm an equal-op flirter) will Get It, or start slavering and whinging.

Sometimes I'm wrong, but at this point in my life, not often. And I save hard-core full-on-filth flirting to old pals.

(Why else do you think I was so popular in North Beach after only 3 weeks?)

Seriously, have you seen yourself in the mirror? Sworn affidavit to your buckets of charm and full-on mad flirty skills, but Great Beauty doesn't hurt.

And I save hard-core full-on-filth flirting to old pals.

::is even more sad Erin's not coming to the F2F::

Jesus. Two people died today in Caltrain (the commuter train that runs between San Francisco to Gilroy) accidents-- one person committed suicide, and the other was a kid crossing the tracks at the wrong time. [link]

Guys I know never seem to think I'll sleep with them, so I can flirt away. Unless I want to sleep with them-see above re inertia.

Most of my flirting (which I haven't done in awhile . It's exhausting for me) has been safe/limited. As in, my friends or my friends' flirty husbands (which I guess is just teasing/banter but it's the same back-and-forth.) Last time I seriously flirted with a nonsafer surprised me with the response. Still fun, but dude, I so did not see that coming. Which makes me laugh at myself now, because ...so predictable. And yet, I still never knew what hit me.

I had a freecycler come get some stuff from me tonight. YAY! I also got teh pet stroller I bought off ebay and discovered it partially broken, not fully assembled and with no instructions. An email has been sent to the seller. I am kinda hoping for a full refund, cause as much as I want one of these, now that I see this one up close, I am not sure it is the right one for me.

That's too bad, msbelle, both on the crappy condition and it not being the right sort. Maybe we should engineer a granny cart that hold carriers. I've got at least one spare!

My biggest issue wrt flirting vs. hitting on, was the receiver thinking the former was the later.

What was described up above by both ita and erin was almost always interpreted as having intent. No way you do that and not have many men I know not think you wanna hook-up.

And for me anyway, flirting loses all fun when a guy I don't wanna sleep with starts acting like the hook-up is ON.

This is me. When I'm all sparkly outrageously flirty -- which is completely devoid of any fuckable intent -- is when the recipient invariably misreads it as an invitation to hook up, and I can't handle their reaction because it makes me feel like a small animal with a broken leg stuck in a trap.

(Geez, Tep. Issues much?)

But it's true. I only flirt if I'm SURE the recipient knows that it's not an invitation to hit it, because otherwise, the recipient's reaction -- well, frankly, it *scares* me.

All bets are off when it comes to Buffistas, though. Hell, I've made out with most of you already.

Yeah, I like flirting with completely inappropriate people, when you both know there's nothing else going on.

Also, I am confident that while people in the Conde Nast building may be greeting their business acquaintances with air kisses, that will not be spreading to the general US corporate culture any time soon. We had a lot of hugs and kisses in Mexico, but, not the US.

Finally, one time in high school I pined after a guy who was totally out of my league, and then it turned out he liked me too! We never really dated, per se, but we did go to the prom together. And whatnot.

Oh, in conclusion, many of you people were very funny this afternoon.