I had driven over to the Starbucks near Oglethorpe with Jason and Zack.  While we were waiting in line, I sort of thrust myself into conversation with the girl behind me, who was applying for a job at the store.  My friends got their coffees and I sat down with them.  Eventually, as I noticed the girl brushing her hair in my direction, it dawned on me that I should have asked for her number, and I stopped by her table while Jason and Zack waited in the car.  I stood and tried to think of something cool to do with my hands; we talked some more (Her name's Mara, she's just moved here from Greece, and is applying at Georgia Tech for next fall semester).

From wikipedia's entry on epinephrine (adrenaline):

Epinephrine plays a central role in the short-term stress reaction—the physiological response to threatening, exciting, or environmental stressor conditions... When released into the bloodstream, epinephrine binds to multiple receptors and has numerous effects throughout the body. It increases heart rate and stroke volume, dilates the pupils, and constricts arterioles in the skin and gut while dilating arterioles in leg muscles... Although epinephrine does not have any psychoactive effects, stress or arousal also releases norepinephrine in the brain. Norepinephrine has similar actions in the body, but is also psychoactive.

And, from the entry on Norepinephrine:

...As a stress hormone, [Norepinephrine] affects parts of the human brain where attention and responding actions are controlled. Along with epinephrine, norepinephrine underlies the fight-or-flight response, directly increasing heart rate, triggering the release of glucose from energy stores, and increasing skeletal muscle readiness.

In translation, my legs shivered, my voice cracked, I forgot what I was saying, and I felt like I might die.

But we did eventually exchange numbers.

These things remind me very much of cliff-diving or public-speaking.

I've never asked a girl for her number - not that way, not without knowing her pretty well.  What are your experiences picking/being "picked up"?

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For those interested in inspirations behind these things, the ambulance story is based on something which actually happened to my brother.  I've actually taken a bit of the actual original story out to make it more "realistic".  But the basic story is:  my brother and his friend have been driving for something like 18 hours straight, drinking coffee and bourbon to keep awake.  They see a pretty bad car crash, and stop to help out, as they're both licensed for CPR and all sorts of other first aid type stuff.  Everyone in the car has minor injuries, except the youngest passenger, who had fallen from his babyseat in the crash.  My brother tries resuscitating the toddler, but the baby is dead shortly after ambulance crews get to the crash.  The ambulance crew is really badly trained.  They drop the older son while trying to put him in a stretcher, and almost try to give the toddler one of those shock things (the type you use to start a person's heart) before my brother's friend convinces them it would be a really bad idea.  My brother and friend give the EMT's their personal information, and are back home two or three hours after the crash.

The second story is I guess what you'd call a character piece, intended to be an exaggeration of all my worst qualities.

As always, I'd be grateful for any criticism you've got.

(And, of course, especially to hear criticism from editor types.  Hint hint ladyleia,
my_blank_slate)