The dating scene not working for you? Too thinned out? Craving human attention? Whats the problem bluemax? I need you guys to drop some experience on me 
Sure let me expound (and add some back story).
I graduated college late, I was already pushing 26 by the time I finished. When I graduated I was into my second year of going out with this girl, and out of necessity we moved in together. This being my first long term, adult relationship it didn't end up super well and about a year later when it finally fell apart she moved out at a really bad time. So basically I was 27, living alone in and the company I worked for was in the process of going under. I didn't have a car, none of my friends from school lived nearby, I didn't really have coworkers any more and I wasn't being paid.
Anywho, I eventually got some contract jobs, got some money, bought a car off a friend of mine for nothing, got some therapy and anti-depressants and got a full time job. Finally at about 28 or so I decide I need to start just making friends again before I even try getting back into dating. Of my coworkers at the time there were only two dudes near my age, one who lived an hour or so away and the other who was kind of a dumbass and scumbag. I joined a rec kickball league (wanted to play softball but that got tanked so I went in for kickball), ended up starting to hang out with dumbass dude, started working out, started hanging out with people from kickball.
Here's the thing about rec leagues, they're click as fuck. Its like some dumb combination of frat life/high school with low tier athletic competition thrown in. You basically get teams that are either douchebags who all work together, douchebags who all know each other from college, or the misfit team. I ended up on the misfit team and met some okay people, but its hard to keep those teams together and it wasn't really that easy to transition to doing shit with people outside of the rec league. I did it, because I was lonely and I've moved a lot and started my life over like a dozen times so I know how to build temporary connections. I've ended up playing rec sports off and on for about 3 years and in the end I don't really have any more close friends than when I started. I know a few more people, I get invited to a few more social events but I don't have people constantly wanting to hang out or people who I even feel okay with just hitting up to talk.
Obviously this is largely on me and who I am, but I mean most of the people I met through this were not the kind of people I ideally want to hang out with or be friends with. And that's really the fucking trick. How do you even meet the kind of people you really want to be friends with as an adult? I have no fucking idea.
The other part of it is that the nature of being around people who are between 24-35 is that most of them boil down to two types: the ones who still want to party and be free like they're in college, and the ones who have realized they're not that young and are looking to settle down. This leads to a lot of divides and people moving apart. Pretty much anyone I met through those rec leagues who ended up in a relationship has become a non factor in my life, which I'm not mad about because I'd do the same thing if it happened to me.
Shittily enough I find myself nostalgizing about being in a relationship with someone I lived with. I know there was a lot of dysfunctional shit, but I miss the good aspects. The companionship, the having someone to talk to about my day, the not having to go on awkward as fuck first dates any more. Like honestly I find writing first messages on OKC to be more tedious than writing cover letters for jobs at this point, and as someone who has changed jobs like 7 times since graduating I have a *lot* of experience in writing cover letters. The whole thing feels like an exercise in pre-judging. Pre-judging the things about yourself they won't like and the things about them that you won't like. It's dumb and not organic, but what socially is organic anymore anyhow?
Dating sucks. I'm not overly funny. I'm not overly rich. And I live in LA and I'm not super fit or super good looking. And I'm a real nerd, not a pretend one, so I'm awkward sometimes even though I have diverse, normal people interests. Dating in LA sucks because there are girls who will use you for free meals or drinks, girls who won't date you because it would require driving on the free way, girls who are 30 years old and work "in the industry" which means they mostly bar-tend or waitress when you have free time or they're auditioning, or filming or writing or whatever. "Tuesday is my Friday" is not something that is conducive to dating as a 30+ year old.
So yeah, all my friends are either in relationships that are verging on marriage or they're massive fuck ups that I don't even know why I'm they're friend. I'm 30, I have a reasonable paying job, I have a car, and I live alone (although I probably shouldn't for my financial sake) and I have a cute dog so I'm capable of empathy and caring for something besides myself.
Thankfully football season is right around the corner so I can be a massive hermit and not really give a fuck anymore.
