That cold air finally is leaving Athens - hopefully for good - and the warmer air seems to be going to people's heads. Maybe it's the birds chirping, the flowers blooming or maybe it's just spring fever in full blast. Regardless, love is in the air, and spring is the season when many seek a mate.

There are those people who are currently in love. You know the ones - they are holding hands or walking around all spacey, thinking about that special someone.

The lucky ones

Junior Lauren Akers has been dating her current boyfriend, Todd Banning, for 15 months.

"We met at a party and we had history class together our freshman year," Akers said.

Parties seem to be a popular meeting spot. Banning thinks it is because everyone is in a good mood at parties. Akers said it has more to do with the general atmosphere of parties that makes it easier to approach people.

Junior Nate Bopp agrees with Banning and Akers. He said parties are definitely a great place to meet people because "you're around so many people."

Banning thinks the reason he and Akers clicked so well is because he was not expecting anything.

"I went to the party not trying to meet anyone," Banning said. "It just happened."

Others meet their loved ones in high school and manage to stick to their relationships through college. It is not always easy, but it has been known to work.

Senior Jenn Grove and her boyfriend, Matt, have been dating for eight months but have known each other since high school, when they had mutual friends and classes together. She said her friends were very surprised when they got together.

Grove said that dating someone she had known so long helped make being in a relationship easier.

"You're already comfortable and there's always something to talk about," Grove said. "You don't have to deal with that first date junk about meeting someone new."

For many, old friends become lovers over time. For others, it's a matter of getting out in public and seeking people. Outside of parties, popular spots for locating a mate range from the obvious (bars) to the not-so-obvious (in line at the dining hall). But some unlucky students have not been able to manage this, even at The Court Street Station.

The alternative for ladies

We've all been there. You're sitting at home Friday night without a date, but there's no reason to get depressed! You have ... well, what do you have? You don't have someone to sit with. And it's not that you aren't happy by yourself. Sure, you can sit all alone and be satisfied, but the fact is you are not getting any and you are damned tired of it!

Fear not, all ye dateless wonders, until the time comes when you meet that special someone. There are a few fillers that allow you to live vicariously through someone else - and so what if that someone is fictional? The characters in the romance novel genre are having pretty good lives. Why not live through them?

For some, the obsession for dirty romance started young, when V.C. Andrews was at the height of her popularity. Others waited for parents to allow such novelists as Danielle Steel - graphic, yes, but at least there is some plot to her love stories.

Now, it seems as if there are a million chances to meet people, fall in love and live happily ever after. But if that magic hasn't happened yet, there are authors who cater to the lonely hearts. Steel and Heather Graham are among the many novelists who write wonderful, powerful love stories that can take a lonely woman away from reality for a little while (and put her in the arms of a really handsome, slightly savage, tall, dark-haired, strong man with a really cool name).

The alternative for gentlemen

While women are curled up in their chairs absorbed in sultry sex novels, one has to wonder - what the hell are guys doing?

Most probably are not interested in the latest book with Fabio on the cover, but they must get frustrated when they aren't dating. They have to do something.

Junior Tim Arnold said many guys just sit around on their duffs and drink beer. Oh, but then - major insight.

"We play Playstation," Arnold said.

Ah yes, the comforting escape of video games. They kill time, you don't have to be social while you play them, and most of the women in them are the most well-endowed creatures ever known to man. Can life get better? Probably.

Senior Jeff Baxter is among the many men who admit to playing more video games while they are single.

"I have more free time, so I play more Nintendo and Playstation with my friends," Baxter said.

Robert Fletcher agrees.

"The video game thing takes a lot of time," Fletcher said.

Although Fletcher is currently in a relationship, he remembers what it was like to be single.

"I found myself doing more things with friends," Fletcher said. "Also, I would try to get involved so I could meet more girls."

Fletcher brought up an important aspect to being single. Without meeting new people, a person likely will remain single.

Senior John Hall said that when he isn't involved with someone, he goes to more dances at Casa Cantina, 4 W. State St.

"I hang out with friends and look for another date," Hall said.

The bars, that endless mecca of available singles, remains an ever-trusty fallback for meeting people.

"I tend to go to the bars a lot more often (when I'm single)," Baxter said. "I haven't bothered with many social events because I don't find them interesting, but I do go to more parties."

Fletcher also used to spend more time Uptown when he was single.

"I found myself spending a lot more time at bars and actively looking for dates," Fletcher said.

Bars and other social venues are not the only alternatives to dating. Sports and other physical activities provide an outlet for frustration, as does artistic expression or music. Others opt to buy a pet and lavish it with love. None of this, however, compares with meeting and hitting it off with a new love interest - so keep trying, you single folk, and good luck.