tackling obesity, junior league-style

this has been one super duper captain insane-o week. it started with all this wonderful, crazy rain, and then monday being a holiday for everyone but me (wah waaaah), and moved right into finals week for the teen. it's been nice having her home early, and MIL has had a lot of fun hanging out with her for an hour or two, since the school day ended right as i'm scheduled to get out of the office.

and i'm totally proud of her for acing her biology final - she scored a 98%! it was just what she needed to kick up her grade in that class from a C to a B. yay! now, hopefully she can do just as well with the rest of her finals - algebra and spanish are today. please, send her some "good luck" vibes if you can.

last night was my first junior league meeting of 2010. it'd been quite a while since i'd seen any of my JLPers (not since early december, when we did the rose float decorating), and it was great to reconnect and catch up with some of the sweet ladies i've met. this meeting was for the provisionals, and because there are 50ish of us in the '09-'10 class, we met at the armory center for the arts, just outside of old town pasadena.

as always, my pictures are slightly blurry as i still have yet to master the settings on my new point-and-shoot camera. i'd better get it figured out before next week's nick jonas concert - we're only allowed one picture with the man (boy? he's 17) himself, and it's on me to make sure it isn't fucked up. the teen's chomping at the bit to finally meet "her husband," and if we come home with an out-of-focus snapshot of her beaming face next to his, i'll never hear the end of it.

we were in a nice, big room that accommodated our group perfectly.

as always, there was food. i'd left my family sitting at the table eating homemade chili and cornbread happily, and my stomach was grumbling in the car. i dug right into that yummy asian chicken salad, snagged a piece of the banana nut bread, and eschewed the wine and 2-liters of diet soda in favor of the sparkling pink lemonade.

the art featured in the room was done by students aged 15 to 18, incorporating self-portraits with their take on some classic art. there was some really great stuff there and a lot of van gogh's "starry night" featured. i'm far from artsy-fartsy, as i really don't get a whole lot of it (remember, i'm totally uneducated), but i could appreciate the efforts and the talent displayed in that room.

as the meeting began, all sorts of fun stuff was discussed - current volunteering opportunities, calendar items, upcoming socials and meetings. one planned social is going to take place at dashing diva - and just the mention of the place brought me back to the last time i was there, waddling in with a giant pregnant belly. ah, the memories.

the second half of our meeting found us breaking out into smaller groups. the provisional class is in charge of planning and executing an annual event called "kids in the kitchen," which is a really great day-long program focusing on teaching elementary school-aged kids healthy eating habits and fitness tips. it's the JLP's attempt to help tackle the sadly growing issue of childhood obesity, and we were all excited to dig in and get started.

i'd successfully lobbied for a spot on the marketing committee - it was the best fit for my skills and background out of all of the other groups. i'm no good at math/money/numbers, so finance was out. i totally suck at asking nicely for donations, so solicitations wasn't for me. my second choice was the program development committee, but i was happy to open my e-mail a few weeks ago that confirmed my first choice.

we trooped next door to gather and get started, at heritage wine company.

it was a cute, cozy little place with nice long tables and a bar that was showing the laker game. i made sure to find a seat that faced the tv, so i could sneak glances at the score. and, of course, there were racks and racks of wine. duh.

it was a really fun meeting, during which we got to know a little bit about all of the other committee members and got a lot of guidance from two members of the provisional committee assigned to help us out. we discussed all of the things that our group would be responsible for and the various leadership positions up for grabs. you know the expression "when you snooze, you lose?" that was me, waiting about a nanosecond too long to speak up and claim the assignment of writing the short pieces to be published in the JLP's monthly newsletter. damn.

but then i perked up as the subject of viral marketing came up, and this time i was a winner. i now get to be in charge of handling stuff like facebook and twitter, sending out quickie blasts of information about our upcoming event. how perfect is that - i now have a legitimate excuse to spend time on sites i'm already constantly on. heh.

the meeting ended right around 9:00, and everyone left pumped and totally excited for the task at hand. it's going to be a fun process, and i can't wait to see what we come up with. and this weekend, i'll be seeing a bunch of these ladies again for a bar method class. i'm a little leery after hearing a description last night of what the class involves, but hey - i've been getting off of my lazy ass lately and getting a workout of some sort in every day via my wii fit. ha!

if i'm still sore three days later, after playing a freaking video game, i'm pretty much screwed. come monday, i'm anticipating not being able to move much. stay tuned.