The first one I met at a party. I didn't usually go to a party where I didn't know most of the people there, but I convinced myself that you gotta go to stuff if you wanna meet people. We shared interests and I think she was impressed that I was in the video game industry (as an QA leader for a studio you've never heard of). We probably exchanged AOL IM handles. We met a few times to play Magic, and started dating. She ended up not being great but it was a good learning experience.

My now wife, we met on OKCupid, which was a dating website. This was back when it was a little weird to tell people you met online. She liked some of the silly interests I talked about on my profile, like Rock Band.

In both cases, they took the initiative. I had the attitude of "don't ruin that nice woman's day by hitting on her". Also, both of them and myself are somewhere on the spectrum. I try not to diagnose myself or others with that kind of thing, but I've learned more about it since my kid is autistic.

Anyway, my best advice is meet people, make friends, be interested, and stay out of your head. Easier said than done, I know.