"Where have all the cowboys gone?": mid-year reflections on the dating game

Another day, another chocolate chocolate chip muffin.

Yes, that's right.

Last night BFF (who lives in Texas unfortunately) and I were discussing the inevitable dilemma of dating. I was talking about how it doesn't make sense to me that a co-worker of hers met his girlfriend on an online dating site mere seconds after he relocated to Texas yet I have been trying forever to no avail. She astutely pointed out that while there are a large number of "normal and nice" girls on these websites, the numbers just aren't there for guys.

It is repeatedly said that the number of single women outweigh the number of single men in New York City. I may have pointed this out here before. Apparently, apartment building after apartment building on the city's Upper East Side are full of young, eligible twenty-something chicks. I should know. I used to be one of them.

The other day roommate (the one I currently see and talk to the most) and I were trying to decide if we wanted to attend a huge speed-dating event next week. She had gotten a coupon for discounted tickets and I thought it was really cool that the event is attempting to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records. When would I have another chance to be a part of something like that?! When we went to purchase our tickets (two of the 500 spots allotted for women that matched 500 spots allotted for men) we paused to take in the numbers... Almost 300 female tickets had been sold to just over 100 male tickets. Ultimately, we decided to forgo this event. Fun as it may turn out to be, I'm not wild about the idea of spending money for a dating event just to meet women. Besides I've done the speed dating thing before. This was just going to be for fun.

I'm not shocked by these revelations. Though non-conventional ways of meeting people (such as online set ups and other matchmaking "schemes") have become less taboo, just how many guys do you know who will throw their hats in the ring? So what's a girl to do? Sure these stories are fun and all well and good but they bring me back to the crux of my position. I work in an industry that is about 75% (if not more) female. I have few male friends and many of my female friends are in the same boat I am (or are happily ensconsed on shore and have exhausted their resources). When meeting new people is tough and going out is complicated it is frustrating.

And so I ask, with my tongue ever-so-slightly in my cheek, "Where have all the cowboys gone?"

And where can I get me one?