Everything else is kinda secondary and meaningless to me because I kinda just want to leave and get back to what I was doing before.
This sounds like it might be the issue for a lot of people, then. In my experience, work functions/conferences/business events are literally
never about work, are 100% about socialization and 'greasing things' so that certain people have the chance to meet other certain people, and most of the important conversations happen after-hours where all of those 'pesky presentations and shit' are done and out of the way and the alcohol has come out. The socialization is typically professional networking (i.e. "Hey
@Tomboy Respecter let me introduce you to so-and-so and get you talking about X" on the hopes that it starts some mutually-beneficial research/collaboration between organizations), but it's still meeting people either way, and many of the people that have wound up in my social group or on its periphery have been randos that I've had to meet through work shit, but we clicked and kept in touch afterward.
Point being, some people have a different workflow on how to meet people and interact with them.
Sure, different strokes for different folks. Anything that works for you is good. But if it
isn't working for you and you're not meeting enough people/chicks, then it's worth shaking things up a bit before resigning yourself to foreveralone status. (Not saying
you are specifically, but the sentiment of this thread and
the other one have gotten pretty gay and sadsack-y recently.)
After I left the town I went to college in I have met a couple people in each new city, usually through volunteering or a shared hobby.
It sounds like you're moving around a lot, from your wording? Which sure, means you're always meeting new people and that's great, but if you're not sticking around long enough to develop rapport with them (for however long it takes you personally to do that) then of course nothing's going to change.
But these aren't the random people you go out drinking or whatever with,
Why not?
you go to the events, see them, and then go back to whatever it was you were doing.
You've never struck up conversation with any of them to get to know who they are outside of the hobby? Nobody suggests hanging out afterwards or doing lunch/dinner/drinks?
Now I work from home so I don't even have coworkers in town.
That's always tough, sure. Globalization and this recent working-from-home nonsense have really done a number on interpersonal relationships, particularly at work. Not even just in the 'meeting new contacts' sense, but in the "Hey man, I've got a plan for a proposal I'm hoping to hash out and present to so-and-so, but it's early days. Wanna head out for beers after work so I can pick your brain on some things?" sense where the candid discussions that actually make shit happen (personally and professionally) need to occur. Obviously if you're not even in the same town then none of that shit can happen, and you've definitely been robbed of some opportunities by circumstance, I think.