Honestly?

The cliché sitcoms and dramas are accurate, because being a single girl in small town Alaska is pretty much like severing your femoral artery and then paddling your surfboard out into a shark-filled break.
It's not that attention isn't nice, but one of my friends explained the operations principle: "As a guy in Alaska, you have to hit on every new single girl immediately. She's not gonna be single for long, and the pickings are slim." 
Apparently, this rule is followed by the majority of the male population: single, married, old, young, eligible, and ridiculously ineligible alike. Add that it's just not that flattering to be one of "slim pickings," and you create myriad awkward social situations.
My softball team has made it their mission to find me a boyfriend. A whole team of matchmakers is pretty hard to defend against, and I keep thinking that if I'm polite about it, maybe I'll get more playtime. That's a pretty pathetic confession of how much I like softball.
These days, a social calendar has to be managed in all sorts of medium. I didn't even know people outside of TV actually went on "dates," but apparently they do, and they plan them via Facebook and text message.  When I got a text from an unknown number asking me out, I wasn't sure if I should ask who it was, say 'my dance card is full', or tell my softball teammates to stop leaving my number on windshields in bar parking lots.