Before I get into gritty of telling about the last week, I just wanted to mention that my beloved Juanes was just named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine. How right they are.

Pues, back to me. The best word I can think of to describe this past week would be "serendipitous", and not just because it's a cool word. I've had so many strange run-ins in the past week, y nada me pas� por pura casualidad. On Saturday I had gone up to Ft. Collins to hang out with my dear friend Noem�, who just moved here from Per�. She was here for a few months last year getting together some details for a project she was running, hiring engineers and stuff like that. She met lots of people then, and now that she's moved back here she keeps running into them. Daily, even. People just keep coming up to her and asking if she remembers them. I told her that I'd run into an old friend on Thursday night, and while we were chatting about all of this, who should come walking across the street in a tux and carrying his violin case, but Reva's kid brother Dallin. I called out to him and introduced him to Noe and asked him if he'd had dinner yet, and did he want to eat with us? Actually, says he, my parents are parking the car and should be here any minute, would you like to have dinner with us? Entonces, Noe and I ended up randomly hving dinner with Reva's family in Ft. Collins on Saturday night, and for the moment that's fairly typical.

And about that friend I ran into on Thursday night: I wrote last week that I'd met up with Gustavo the Gorgeous Bolivian for coffee and that we were going to meet on Thursday night at La Rumba. I was tired and what I really wanted was to go to bed, but I was with a couple of friends and since Gustavo was probably waiting for me, I figured I'd go and just not stay very late. Gustavo wasn't there, by the way. Hmph. I thought I'd stay and at least dance and maybe mingle a little, anyway. I was standing with some girlfriends waiting to be asked to dance by someone un-lurpy and watching our friend Rafael burning up the floor when I noticed a very, very attractive man across the way, looking at me. He came up to me after the song ended and said something like, "you're going to have to help me out, because I know I know you from somewhere but I can't place it." Of course I thought it was just a line (I think we're all guilty of having used that one at least once) until I realized that I did know him. He's a guy that one of my friends was sort-of involved with before I left for Per� a few years ago, and when I got back she'd hooked up with someone else and basically broken ties with this guy, we'll call him J. I'd run into him once or twice just after that, but I hadn't seen him in a couple of years. We danced a little, talked for a while, and I didn't feel strongly one way or the other about seeing him but I gave him my number anyway. The next day it kept nagging at me, eventually I called him, and long story short, he had me over for dinner on Sunday and again last night after classes, and we're both feeling a little smitten. I've even got those silly happy little feelings in my belly and I get all twittered every time he looks at me in that way he does. Suffice to say that my little pre-Atlanta plan to just date casually, meet lots of people and regain my opposite-sex social skills without getting involved are effectively trashed. And quickly trashed, at that-- I ran into J., as we're calling him, exactly one day after my first post-break-up date-like experience. And of all the people to run into, him. I liked him when we met, there's a certain seriousness and depth to him that off-sets his wry sense of humor. Despite all the things we don't have in common and the differences in our respective worldviews, there's a connection and a clarity when we're together. It was just awful timing three years ago, for everyone involved. I don't know why I've crossed paths with him again and why it's happening now, but I'll just be happy for it. Did I mention that he's amazingly easy on the eyes?

Yipe. Here's hoping I can keep my head on straight and my heart at a safe distance through this. It's such a bizarre situation, and if I can cling to the novelty of it and just enjoy myself without getting attached I may be okay. Likely? Stay tuned.