Let me say that I am a fairly happily married woman. I have complaints, of course, but the big picture looks good.

And I'm pretty sure the girls are lucky in the father department.

And unless Sting/Alan Rickman/Mark Dacascos comes to me with five million dollars and a semi full of Belgian chocolate and a five book deal with Tor, there is pretty much nothing that could tempt me away from the life that I have.

So I was reading along merrily in the Jaz Park novel (Once Bitten Twice Shy) and who should the protagonist run into but a martial arts (aikido) bad guy with the EXACT SAME name as a former fling I had (before naoto) in Japan who just happened to be a black belt in Aikido.

Imagine my surprise! So of course I looked up the author to see if she lived anywhere near where I last heard this guy was. Nope. And then I read her bio and her webpage to see if she'd lived in Japan, or had ties to some aikido dojo or something.

Nope. Nothing.

So then I googled a bit and found this guy. And there was a picture of him at his dojo in the state where he lived.

And he looked exactly the same. Of course probably no connection to the author or the Jaz Parks novel, but wow, how strange.

And for a moment, my mind went into what-if land. Like, what if I had pursued him a bit more forcefully before I left Tokyo? Or what if I contacted him now and some of those feelings were revived?

But then, the reality of feeling the way I felt back then hit me.

And I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO do not want to be that person anymore. It's an uncomfortable fit, like trying to put on a damp bathing suit you outgrew two years ago.

So anyway, Mr. Aikido, whoever and whatever you turned out to be, I will lift my Kauai Lava Flow (awesome drink with is a pina colada with dollops of strawberry puree in it) to you and to a past me: may we never meet again :)