Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places

I'm an ex-pat and as almost all ex-pats do, I keep tabs on the goings-on in my country of origin. In my case, it's Canada and more specifically, Vancouver.

A few months back, a couple of Washington Post reporters came up to Alaska to report on what it's like to find romance in the Last Frontier. Their article appeared a few weeks ago, and was met with many a raised eyebrow in this state. Then a couple of weeks later, up comes an article in the Vancouver Sun asking "why is it so hard to score?" in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

Out of the pair of Washington reporters, we got a fluff piece with some awfully lazy reporting. Two reporters came to Homer, hit a couple of dive bars and reported their findings. Really? Sadly, Alaska was painted as a place full of poorly dressed, bearded and inked fishermen who seem to have nothing better to do than frequent dive bars.

The Vancouver Sun article actually touched on an issue that as a former Vancouverite, I could relate to: that finding Mr. Right in that city is hard to do. Vancouver was painted as a place full of unsmiling, unapproachable people who are caught up in a frenetic urban lifestyle and rarely stray from their established social circles.

Oh, how those two articles took me back to the days of dating Hunter.

I remember Hunter being blown away by the volume of beautiful, seemingly unattached women in Vancouver. He asked me if it was normal to have so many single women in one place. After a couple of days in the city, he was convinced that his single friends were nuts not to spend time in Vancouver. I remember him telling his friend Ian, "This place is amazing, there are so many gorgeous single women around and all you have to do is approach them and say hi!"

Now, before you think Hunter insensitive for noticing other women while on a date with yours truly; I'd recently been to Alaska to visit him and I did the same thing. I texted a friend while waiting for a flight to Dillingham saying: "This place is AMAZNG. It's full and I mean FULL of good looking manly men. They'll actually smile and strike up a conversation and they're interesting manly men. What IS this place?"

For a while there, I was wondering if meeting Mr. Right was as easy as spending a bit of time in either ERA or PenAir's departure lounge. Fortunately for me, I'd already found Mr. Right so I never got to test my hypothesis. 

To the Washington Post reporters, I would simply say this: you didn't give Alaska the chance it deserved. I know so many awesome men here in Homer who would knock the Choos off your single readers. Though they're all out doing pretty cool things, finding them isn't hard. One place they're not, is a shady bar.

The Vancouver Sun writers, I think your match-maker pegged it when he counseled people to loosen up, broaden their horizons and take a few risks. Look where it got me.