Serendipity, and other cool stuff

This afternoon, I drove to San Francisco, found a parking spot, and then went in search of wireless internet. I had just ordered a macchiato at Starbucks when I realized my wallet was back in the car. I retrieved it and, again on the prowl for wireless, stumbled upon a different Starbucks, closer to the car. I had just ordered my macchiato when I looked up and saw my friend Nia! There must be hundreds of Starbucks in this city, and I managed to visit the one where Nia works, when she's working!

Happily, I'll get to spend more time with her tomorrow - she and Mavis both have the day off, so I get to do "brunchy things" with them.

Tonight, I'm attending an orientation about becoming a workshop leader for a non-profit called About-Face. From their website:

Our Education into Action media literacy program teaches young women the skills they need to truly understand what they’re seeing to lessen the effects of harmful media messages. About-Face workshops are sassy, edgy, fun, creative and interactive. We go to schools and other organizations to teach young women how to dissect all types of media including magazine advertisements, music videos, television shows and so on.

It sounds like a really cool program and a great organization overall, so I'm excited to learn more about it!

And, to update you on last night's adventures, I successfully spun fire! I wouldn't go so far as to say I danced with fire, but I survived without getting burned! My shirt was actually flaming for a few seconds, but the spotter came over and smothered the flames with a towel, and I happily went on spinning. Some observations:
* Poi is like belly dancing. Even beginners look good doing it.
* It's more exciting in person than on YouTube.
* While you're spinning, it's harder to see than you'd think. I don't think I could see anything besides the balls of fire flying around my head.
* It's also harder to hear than you'd think. The lighted poi make really cool whooshing noises when you spin them, and it's pretty loud when you're right in the middle of them.
* Being on fire is not necessarily as scary as you'd think. I still think being burned at the stake would be pretty much the worst way to die, but last night the only thing burning was white gas (camping fuel) which burns at a relatively low temperature. My shirt shows no evidence of having hosted flames - it does smell a little like gas though.