I came out of a passionless marriage that lasted 7 1/2 years and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for my job from Las Vegas. I subscribed to Yahoo! Personals on July 4, 2007 and used the online dating service for three weeks. I found three potential matches. Jason was my third.

What convinced me to email Jason were the two paragraphs he wrote about himself. It wasn't really the content of his online profile, it was his dry sense of humor and intelligence that came through. That's what got me hooked. We exchanged several emails before we talked on the phone. The more I chatted with him, the more I realized he had everything I wanted. He was educated, passionate, and we shared common values.

Jason moved to San Francisco from LA for his job around the same time as me. What really caught my attention was when I found out that we came from the same hometown, San Diego. We're only a year apart in age and our parents live about 15 miles apart in San Diego, but our paths never crossed.

We walked from the front of his apartment to a hotel on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. We took an elevator up to a bar offering a panoramic view of the Bay. We had a couple drinks and started to get to know each other better. Then, we went to eat the most amazing calamari at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. After dinner, we took a taxi to a club where we met up with his roommate/best friend. Then, we hopped back in a taxi to his place. He showed me his apartment in the Embarcadero, which also has an amazing view of the Bay. We ended up talking until 5 a.m.

At the time of our first date, we were both active in the dating scene and armed with our laundry list of "must-haves" vs. "negotiables." Yet, when we met, we didn't need those dating lists anymore. We realized that the dating lists only work for the search of "Mr. and Ms. Right Nows" -- you meet your matches, update your list, and move on. What we found was something so much more... a true connection. We both knew we had good chemistry -- physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Two months after we met, we became an exclusive couple and were meeting each other's parents. Our relationship became every romance novel, chick flick, and Cosmo article rolled up into one perfect match. The funny thing is that I wasn't looking for a serious relationship, because my divorce had finalized only a couple months before I found Jason. Yet, I found the man I can't live without.

Although we live in the same area, we would have never met each other if it wasn't for Yahoo! Personals. He never came down to my neighborhood, and I never went to his part of town. We had completely different social lives: He likes the clubs and wine bars, whereas, I like the cafes and chic stores. Now, we stop by the wine bar on our way to the chic store!

What started off as "partners in crime" (as we coincidentally wrote in our emails) will soon turn into "partners for life" when we get married next year in California's Wine Country.

Online personals profile advice: Post a natural profile photo of yourself, let your personality shine by taking the time to write a good profile, and keep your filters up -- you don't want to be caught off guard when those winks and smiles start rolling in from other singles.

Tips for finding your love match: What really helped me in narrowing down the dating search of who I wanted to contact is that I knew exactly what my "must-haves" were. I used them as my key search terms.