You know, I just have notoriously bad luck with women. My first relationship (technically my second girlfriend, I suppose, but the first one was for all of a week during vacation in Tucson, so I don't think it counts) lasted ten months (August 1997 - May 1998). She then moved off to college and married some guy a little over a year later. He seems like a nice guy, but that's beside the point.
I then somehow managed to not even get a single date for the next four years.
I went on one date in November 2001, which I thought was nice, but it turns out she was a bit dissatisfied with it. Sorry 'bout that.
Then, nothing until Michelle at the end of my junior year. Thanks to my general cluelessness and inconsiderateness, though, that turned out to be an entirely one-sided and dysfunctional relationship.
Then there was Christina. I'll count her as my second real girlfriend. We were technically an item for almost exactly six months, though I suppose we started "dating" a month before. But, since it was summer, and she was working and I was away at camp, we didn't see each other a single time in the intervening month. Thanks, once again, to my close-mouthedness, and lack of ability -- or perhaps it's desire -- to express myself, that ended badly, and continued (off and on) to be unfomfortable and unpleasant for both of us through the end of the semester.
Since Christina and I broke up, I haven't been out on a single date, and I've been turned down... let's see... tonight makes fifteen times, I believe. This is kind of a an interesting time, though. It's the first time I've been turned down blatantly and with no pretense made. No "I'll have to see if I'm free," or, "I'd love to if I could," or "I don't know. Can I get back to you later?" or, "Sorry, I'm not feeling well." (Don't get me wrong, I understand that those might be legitimate reasons, and it may be possible that all fourteen times the girls I was asking did want to go. I'm not counting on it, though.) Instead, this is, I think, a verbatim transcript of the conversation:

"Hey, would you like to go dancing tomorrow night?"
"Me?"
"Yes."
"Honestly?" <I should have gotten the point here and said, "Oh. Maybe some other time." Instead, I said:>
"Yes?"
"Not really."
She then proceeded to give me a run-down of what her plans were for the next day. They involved getting up, going to work, going to rehearsal, and hanging out at a friend's house doing nothing.

At this point, it no longer even bothers me. I'm just bemused. Statistically, don't most people have better luck than this? 0-15... I figure, I'm at the bottom, there's no place to go but up. Besides, I figure if she didn't want to go dancing with ME, she would have made up some excuse. I'll assume that the fact that she didn't -- since last time I made the same proposition she said "Ooh... I want to! Unfortunately, I have rehearsal until eight. Where are you going? Can I make it in time?" -- means it didn't occur to her that it might be taken as a personal rejection, so I won't take it that way. But, I was wondering how long it would take to get turned down outright. Now I know. It only takes fifteen tries. (c;

I'll get 'em next time.