Meet Us in the Parking Lot...

Earlier this week, we came across this map that offers a state-by-state breakdown of where most Craiglist missed connections happen. Some of the results are surprising, others not so much. It should come as a shock to no one that for many southern, midwestern and other what we'll charitably call "flyover states", Walmart is the place. That distinguished list includes: Idaho, Montana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio (fact: the most American state in America), North Carolina and Florida. For California and Nevada it was 24-hour fitness clubs and casinos respectively – no surprises there either. There are some interesting finds, however. In North Dakota, for instance, the answer is simply "bar", which we assume refers to the only one in the entire state. Perhaps the oddest of all is Indiana, which cites "at home." We can only imagine how badly the housing crisis has ravaged that state if people are having missed connections in their own homes.

Of course what we really want to know is where people are (almost) meeting people in Rhode Island. Surprisingly, the answer was not Dunkin' Donuts, but parking lots. (Perhaps Dunkin' Donuts parking lots?) We wanted to check this out ourselves, so we hung around some parking lots trying to look intriguing yet available. When that got creepy, we scanned Rhode Island Craigslist for some actual examples of parking lot pimpin'. Here are some of our finds:

Black Underwear at Gym - m4m - 40 (West warwick) You always have on hot sexy underwear for a older guy, walked up to you in parking lot asked where you bought them told me international men, love to do more than just look at that hot ass of yours, tell me what kind of car you drive and your age so i know its you stud. also what gym we both were at.

work together on Capitol Hill - m4w - 42 (Capitol Hill) We work together on Capitol Hill and run into each other in the parking lot often. I think we both have something for each other but nervous to cross the workplace ethics line. I know this is a long short but it's worth trying

female warwick police officer - m4w - 38 (post rd) I was snowplowing a parking lot and you responded to a complaint of noise from a snowblower. You were hot and you were staring oddly at my blue eyes.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL I'VE EVER SEEN'nn - m4w (Stop and shop westerly) I saw ya for the first time 3 weeks ago shopping with your friend and you had the cutest baby with you!! I couldn't help but stare and I think you noticed cuz we made eye contact a few times and smiled but u were checking out so I didnt wanna chase ya into the parking lot like a stalker. I obviously wasn't shopping but was hard at work and everytime I see ya I can't help but think.... I wonder if she's with someone and if she is, I'd tell her bf how lucky he is!!!! I've seen ya 4-5 times these past few weeks and I think ya know by now.... I can't keep my eyes off ya. The only reason I haven't approached ya is cuz the last few times I've seen ya, you've been shopping with ur grandma and as bad as I wanna be brave and tell ya how beautiful you are, I haven't cuz I don't think it's right to make that move while ur with ur grandma. I know if you ever see this you'll know who I am and even if you don't, the next time I see you with ur friend I'm gonna find out ur situation. I look forward to the day cuz I'm not shy by any means and I gotta know. Besides being absolutely gorgeous, you are so sweet to ur grandma and that's so amazing so I can only imagine how sweet of a person you are!! Hope to hear from ya and there's no doubt that if you ever see this, you'll know who it is!!!

To our dismay, these were among only a handful of search results that came up for "parking lot" – and several of them only migrated to the parking lot after being initiated elsewhere. This leads us to believe that either the results of this study are questionable, or that in a state this small and with so few degrees of separation, very few connections are actually missed.

P.S. If you ever see us in a parking lot, don't be shy. We'll gladly tell you where we bought our underwear.