Ope, yeah. I’m the same age and currently facing the increasing brutality of hangovers pushing me to be more responsible with my drinking. It hasn’t yet hit the point of not being able to take advantage of the liquid courage to talk to people. Fortunately I do have a sober trick from my crippling anxiety days of psyching myself up to just cross the point where it’s more awkward to stop. It’s weird to think I was stone sober when I tried a stupid line on my now wife lol.

And yeah I think the big trick is to learn to casually chat with anyone and to learn to flirt. The first gets you comfortable and the second lets you figure out if someone is interested. I’ll admit I rarely make moves on someone because she looks available, but because she looks interesting or she’s been interesting in conversation.