I have a confession to make: I met my boyfriend online. Don’t think I’m a freak. First, let me explain. It was all very nice and natural. I didn’t visit an online dating service, nor did I respond to some ad he placed on Match.com or something.

We just happened to be in the same cyber-space at the same cyber-time, started chatting, and five years later, here we are, a normal couple who watch the Golden Girls together, chase each other around the apartment and play drinking games while watching Japanese cooking shows.

That is what normal couples do, don’t they?

In any case, fate may not smile down upon you as easily as it did for me. Maybe you’re having a hard time finding a person with whom to share a rainy afternoon.

Maybe you’ve dedicated so much time to furthering your education that you don’t have time to play the field and meet other people.

Or maybe you’re just tired of your mother asking you when you’re going to find a nice Jewish boy/doctor/man-who-doesn’t-pick-his-teeth-at-the-dinner-table. If that’s your case, Degreedate.com wants to help.

Degreedate.com is like the Match.com for people who value education. Almost all the subscribers, male and female, have college degrees or are pursuing a degree. Some are even professionals.

Cully Perlman, president and CEO of Degreedate.com, started the site because he thought other online dating services didn’t target people who value education in their prospective matches. And while you don’t necessarily need to be college-educated in order to join, this is a place, as the slogan for the website states, where “brilliant minds meet.”

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see who Degreedate.com thought would make an ideal match for me.

I typed in that I am a female looking for a male between the ages of 25 and 45 (I like ’em mature and wisened, thank you). On my screen appeared a picture of a very normal-looking 30-year-old from La Habra. According to his profile, he likes to “watch college sports (boo!)… read (yay!)… go grocery shopping and cook for a couple of days (huh?) … and play the guitar (yay again!).” He also had a BA, though he didn’t specify in what. Overall, he sounded like a nice person, but probably not for me.

The next match was a 43-year-old from Hermosa Beach. He had both a BS and an MBA, and he was self-employed. His profile said that he likes to “travel at a moment’s notice” and “doesn’t like to plan things very far ahead.” I already knew a Hermosa Beach Man, and I knew it wouldn’t work out, as I like to make plans and stick to them. The final indication that love wasn’t in the cards came farther down in his profile, were it said “My pictures are recent, so, as they say, ‘A picture speaks a thousand words.'” I can’t stand when people throw around clich?s like a bad habit. But maybe I’m making much ado about nothing. Adios, Hermosa Beach Man.

Damn, strike one and strike two in the span of five minutes. But that’s okay, because finding the right person can be difficult. According to Perlman, there has been one success story since the site began in December 2004.

And, in time, perhaps online dating services will lose their stigma as being a “last resort for desperate people.” Hopefully, then, when I tell people that I met my boyfriend online, I finally won’t be met with looks of derision, looks usually reserved for people who tell others that they eat paste… and that they like it.