I was sitting in my favorite Chinese buffet place today when I had one of those moments where everything seems more real. The imitation pink carnations in the tiny vase with little white flowers surronding them seemed just really amazingly wonderful. The crinkled leather of the seat across from me, the gold inlayed dragons, and the large painting of the swans, the Asian woman who came and cleared my plate: all of it seemed perfect, like I had stopped seeing Plato's shadows on the cave wall and was looking at the real thing. I did not really want to do anything other than sit and enjoy. It was like that moment in A.I. when the robot boy has been rescued by the aliens and is sitting there in timeless happiness with his mother. Part of me is still there right now.

Sometimes it is good to have inherited extra funky brain stuff from my mother.

Of course none of this had anything to do with my impending third meeting with Merovingian woman. She has informed me that she is only looking for a platonic relationship and just finds me an interesting person to converse with. However, as demonstrated in the first paragraph, there is platonic and then there is Platonic.