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In cards, drawing a bad hand doesn’t mean you quit playing the game—it just means you change the way you play. From the online entrepreneur who moonlights as a professional hockey player to the vegetarian farm girl who’s introducing a line of sustainable T-shirts, our 16 singles are all changing the game in their respective fields—and it’s the same deal when it comes to dating. These individuals show an almost unparalleled lust for life. While none have yet found their one and only, they’re (awww) all number one in our book.



Brad Gutting, 29
Advertising art director, Lafayette Square
Brad Gutting is a man in touch with his physical side. He trains by lugging sandbags, swinging a sledgehammer, working the gymnastics rings and even practicing mixed martial arts. He has also trekked through Death Valley (taking photos the entire time for an exhibit at John Burroughs this fall) and one day hopes to scale Annapurna in the Himalayas. But don’t be intimidated—it’s as much a spiritual thing as it is a physical one.

His advice to potential dates: “You have to feel really deeply for something. I don’t mean just ‘passionate.’ I want a woman who’s on fire for something, anything—I don’t care what. Show some enthusiasm and excitement! Risk yourself. Without that we’ll never connect.”

That kind of emotional honesty takes Gutting beyond the temporal. His parents, an ad exec and a social worker, pushed him to develop independence. His mantra now: “Think before you believe.”

But he isn’t overly earnest, either: “I take life seriously, but I don’t take myself seriously—at all. Neither should you,” he says. “I laugh at myself easily and frequently, and so do a host of others.” When he and the other Cannonball Advertising guys get stressed, he says, out come the water guns—and one time he even came into work to find a couch on top of his desk.

We never would’ve believeds taste in music. He’s driven 90 miles to see Mötley Crüe; also, he says, “I’m a huge B-52s fan. I know more than just ‘Love Shack’ and ‘Rock Lobster.’ And sometimes I sing along.”



Cindy Zhang, 24
Medical student, Central West End
If you met Cindy Zhang, she could tell within 10 seconds whether you liked her. “It’s like a sixth sense,” she says. “I can even tell how much people like each other, like on a sliding scale from 1 to 10.” Given that and her love of flirting, it’s surprising Zhang is single—and has been for a year-plus. “I was never single for more than five months throughout college,” says the second-year Wash. U. med student. “It’s a lot harder to meet people once you’re out.”

Ah, med school. For Zhang, each day is a blur of rotations and classes. Her only downtime comes early, when she wakes at 5 a.m. to jog six miles in Forest Park. “All day long I’m trying to help other people and think through medications,” she says. “But in the morning it’s you, the iPod and your footsteps.”

Zhang’s life has already been a trek. Born in China, she spent three years in Japan, then moved here in middle school. After biochemistry at Wash. U., she entered med school—and was wowed by her peers’ intelligence and social acumen. “Having gone through that, I’m learning more about myself and how I think about things,” she says.

We never would’ve guessed: She can ride the unicycle—a skill picked up after school in Japan. “They taught us how to ride a unicycle and walk on bamboo stilts and all these random circus tricks,” she says. “If medicine falls through, I guess I have that to fall back on.”



Valerie Forquer, 48
Account manager and sales trainer, Creve Coeur
Valerie Forquer’s definitely an initiative-taker. “I’m absolutely outgoing,” she says. “In fact, in my baby book my mom had written, ‘She’s not afraid of anyone; she’ll talk to anyone.’” That friendly, conversational demeanor has helped her succeed at Corning, where she’s worked for 18 years as one of only 35 salespeople nationwide. A flair for reconnaissance never hurts, either—she got her job at least in part by recounting an impressive tale of corporate espionage, tailing dry ice industry competitors’ delivery trucks.

At her church she coordinates a sports ministry for kids, and this September, she organized her 30-year class reunion, complete with a photo slide show and full playlist.

“I’m sort of a PowerPoint/iPod junkie,” she laughs, confessing a predilection for late-night solo dancing in the office. But not singing, which friends literally pay her not to do. “If ‘I Am Woman’ doesn’t get them, my rendition of ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow’ is sure to put some cash in my hands,” she says.
For her next act, she’d like to get a degree in counseling—she figures she can pull it off by age 60. She’s staying optimistic—and in terms of dating she says, “I think you need to be open to anything that might come into your world.”

We never would’ve guessed: That Sauget, Ill., is named for her great-grandfather: “The chemical plants that other people go, ‘That’s awful’? That’s one of the best smells to me, ’cause those are just great memories.”



Eric Yttri, 26
Graduate student, Skinker/DeBaliviere
At only 26, Eric Yttri has done things most people only read about. He’s kayaked in Antarctica, stood at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and visited Cuba. “I’ve been places where it seems otherworldly,” says the Indiana native. “Some people love going to the Burger Kings in England. I want to get as far away as possible.”

So why St. Louis? “I work with monkeys,” Yttri says. “I teach them to play video games.” The Washington University neuroscience grad student conducts rhesus monkey studies to learn how the brain relates to the surrounding world. Outside the lab, Yttri’s all about the music. He plays an array of brass instruments and owns tons of CDs and vinyl, from Glenn Miller to Metallica. Yet he avoids the temptation to study his passion: “I’ve really tried to stay away from music and the brain, so I don’t confuse work with pleasure.”

Unsurprisingly, his ideal date involves tunes and talk. Yttri envisions an evening at Riddles Penultimate. “We’d sit close enough to the band to hear it but far enough away to actually talk,” he says. A little tame, no? “Well, we’d go stargazing or something afterward,” he adds. “I’d be up for anything—you have to leave room for that spontaneous part of the date.”

We never would’ve guessed: He got misty reading Harry Potter—he teared up whenever a key character died.



Katie Miller, 27
Jewelry designer and research coordinator, Shaw
“In 10 years I hope to look back thinking, ‘Man, I rocked it in my twenties and thirties. I really made the most of my time alive,’” says Katie Miller. To that end, she’s choosy how she spends her time—even when it comes to movies. “I’m very selective about what I watch, ’cause sometimes you watch something and you’re like, ‘God, I threw those three hours away,’” she says.

Miller maintains quite a pace, working as a clinical research coordinator at Wash. U.’s School of Medicine, a clerk at Charm, A Jewelry Boutique—and the co-owner of Scarlett Garnet Jewelry, whose pieces are already selling in Chicago, San Francisco and other cities.

This vibrant gal can often be found doing karaoke with friends at Johnny Gitto’s—or dancing, something she’s enjoyed in various forms (Irish, jazz, poms, funk) since age 5. Dates had best be able to hold their own: “If he doesn’t at least try to keep up with me on the dance floor, he doesn’t even stand a chance,” she says. A guy needs the ability to lead—but a willingness to maintain his own space.

Another necessary quality: a readiness to play along. Her ideal date? A moonlit bike ride through the St. Louis streets, which she does monthly at the Full Moon Fiasco. Goals, good listening skills and a belief in evolution are also key.

We never would’ve guessed: Someone so optimistic would have such sweetly dark tastes, including the film Igby Goes Down and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.