Yo soy Latina... un poquito!

So, I've been going through a bunch of digital pictures while on my babysitting vacation and I came across the following pictures that I think I promised my Mom I would send to her. Let me give some background before you jump to the conclusion that being an SPHS alumni and a Mesa High faculty member has taken over my life.

My calling for the past year has been Activities Co-Chair for our singles stake of 2000 young adults. Twice a year we throw a big date activity...

The Girl's Choice Luau in the Fall

This is my co-chair John with his girlfriend Lisa and me with my date Ryan.

And some group pics with girlfriends and their dates...

And then there's a guy's choice activity in the spring. These activities are HUGE events. The girl's choice brings out upwards of 900 people; the guys choice can usually break 600. We have a dinner, some entertainment, photo ops, and, of course, dancing. Our Stake President is very wealthy and has a GINORMOUS backyard that can easily hold these activities... with room to spare. My co-chair has been in this calling a couple years longer than me, so he's got all the hook-ups down and all we really have to do is advertise, pre-sell tickets and then run the event. It might sound like a ton of work with that many YSAs, but if you can do something for 90 people, you can do it for 900, really.

Anyway, it seems that every year, the guy's choice theme changes. This year, we tried a Fiesta theme... you know, catered Mexican food, a Mariachi band, latin music/dancing, a pinata... and of course, a fitting photo op. I'm usually in charge of "creating the atmosphere" (that's just a sophisticated way of saying "decorations"), so I went to the source of all things Mexican that I know of: my students at Mesa High. I have a couple students involved in the "Fuego Latino" traditional balle folklorico club on campus. Besides making hundreds of big colorful tissue paper flowers for me, they let me borrow dance costumes for photo props. Well, I didn't tell my date Greg about that, so when he came to pick me up, I was dressed like this:


I was hoping it would embarrass him, but I should have known better... he was fine with it! He just looked at me and was like, "alright, if that's what you want to wear, let's go then!" Of course, I wasn't really ok with it, mainly because it was blazing hot that day and I had already planned for these costumes to be props for the couple pictures. Greg was a way good sport and got dressed up in this to go on stage with me and announce when the couple pictures would begin.

When you're in charge of a huge date activity like this, its important to not only get a date (how humiliating would that be to throw a huge group date for everyone but yourself?!) but to get a date that will have fun by working by your side. Thanks Greg (and Ryan)!


If you're curious and/or bored, here's the link to all pictures from past activities.