Flirting

To be brief, I'm not very good at it.  Or maybe I'm not good at it when I want to be.  I usually find myself flirting with people who aren't interested, or people I shouldn't be flirting with.  Let me explain:  this doesn't happen all that often, but when I'm around teenagers, their energy and lack of inhibitions rubs off a bit on me, which makes me relax a bit more, and sometimes I end up unintentionally flirting with them.  (of course, I'm talking about those types you can't tell are teens)  Again, let me stress that this is always unintentional.  

It seems that I should have learned a thing or two about flirting in high school.  I was always jealous of a friend of mine, because he was constantly picking up girls with his skills, which were apparently completely unintentional.  In retrospect, I'm kind of glad I was a bit of a dateless wonder back then, because otherwise, there could have been a potentially friendship-ending girlfriend war.  

Anyway, I never really figured out my friend's secret moves, so I'm stuck in the same old place.  The good news is, I think I'm finally figuring out what works now.  Most of my female interaction is over the internet, but I take what I can get these days.  It takes a certain type of woman to show any interest in me, so I count a reply to a message as a victory.  I've been told I'm a funny guy, so I try to use that to my advantage.  I enjoy using irony and fake dramatics, although intent/tone is sometimes hard to judge over the internet, so I think this is why it sometimes fails.  I've also just realized that I can use my writing skills to my advantage as well.  I have yet to try this out, but I think I might get more creative with introductory messages in the future.  Perhaps making potential girlfriends the star of their own mini-story could be a good way to get things started.