I have a friend in Australia, many in Hong Kong, a bestie in London, friends in Sycamore and from high school around the U.S. But my friend quota in Chicago is seriously lacking. I can only call a handful of people my friend in the city which makes it slim pickings when finding activities or people to hang out with.

This begs the question: how do you make new friends? My workmates are great at work, but we don’t do things socially. I meet people at yoga classes and at Kappa alum activities but I have yet to exchange numbers with someone I’ve met there.

I had this same predicament when I lived in Ottawa, the town of married folks with kids and young townies who refuse to be friendly with newbies. My solution there was to go home every other weekend and make friends with my parents. The same problem plagued me when I moved to Hong Kong, except this time I didn’t have my parents to use as a crutch, so I spent my first few months woefully lonely. So when I came to Chicago, I was none-too-surprised to find myself back again without many friends in the immediate area. I became buddies with married folk in Ottawa, eventually gained great pals in HK, so I’m not too worried now, but it still sucks spending the weekends making plans to go to yoga at night so I don’t have to spend both nights at home.

Dating helps because it automatically gives me someone to hang out with a few nights a week and because the guy I’m dating has friends to hang out with. So what happens when he’s out of town and your best friend in the city is sick and your soon-to-be new roomie is also on vaca? You plan shopping dates with your mom, go to yoga at least twice, and watch a whole lotta TV. Most importantly, you write blogs complaining that you don’t have enough friends instead of getting out there and making them.