We know. Frankly, you're exhausted. You're sick of dating, you can't meet anyone you really like and it feels like the world is overrun with an endless number of women all clamouring for the same single guy. But statistically it can't possibly be true, unless there was a government-sponsored experiment that created a run on girl babies some 30 to 40 years ago. The men are out there, but in your post-bar years you have to be creative to find them.
"It's a serious project to find a mate," says Ruth Claramunt, who has run Hearts Introduction Services, an old-fashioned matchmaking business, for almost 25 years. "If you wanted a job, you would go out there and work until you found a job. If you wanted a house, you would look until you found the perfect house. You have to do the same to find a mate," she says. "The men are in the same boat. They're thinking, 'I'm older, I have a great house, I have a great car, I want children, but I'm not meeting anyone.' But you're not going to find anyone if you're sitting at home watching television."
Here are five fresh ideas to help you find the gent you've been waiting for.
"I knew a lady who actually went and bought a dog so she could meet this veterinarian she was interested in," laughs Claramunt. It worked. They dated and had a child. (No word on how the dog felt about the addition.) That said, a dog is a big responsibility, but you can always borrow one if you can't manage your own (plus walking a dog is good exercise). Take a friend's pup out, or sign up with your local animal shelter or humane society to be a volunteer. Ellen Roer joined a program where she would walk dogs that were being trained to be bomb detectors or seeing-eye dogs. "I did it a little bit to meet men," she admits sheepishly. "People would see their tiny jackets that said Explosive Detection Dog and it was kind of a magnet."
