Community = amazing.

I posted awhile back about being nervous when Square1Club opened that we would lose some of the “community” element that was so wonderful in our big bootcamp groups. Now that we’re a month or so into it I’m feeling a lot better where that’s concerned. Personally, I’ve tried to make a bit more effort myself to keep in touch with people, especially the ones I don’t have workouts scheduled with every week.

This past Saturday night I had an impromptu dinnerparty/scrabble night. It was so great! It was Angie’s idea, so thank you miss Angie for an awesome idea! We ended up inviting Kevin, Robert, and Amana. So there were 6 of us, like a triple date. Of course, had it been a triple date, the pairings probably would have been something like: Robert and Kevin, Dave and Angie, Me and Hartman, LOL! But anyway, it was a nice little group, just barely small enough to squeeze around my little table.

Amanda was awesome and helped cook. I asked Facebook for chicken suggestions (THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I’m filing all those ideas away because I’m sure there will be many “next times”) We ended up making a stir fry. HyVee had orange and yellow peppers on sale, so I picked up one of each. I bought yellow carrots because they’re “fancier”, some roasted red pepper for color, and broccoli. It was delicious! Amanda did an amazing job with the spices, considering how little I know to keep on hand. She even made a “sauce” (like she deglazed the pan and everything! Cornstarch was involved! She’s so fancy and knowledgeable, it’s amazing!) and I enjoyed my little cooking lesson (although I felt guilty making my friends do most of the work for a party at MY house. Oh well!)

We played a round of Upwords. Like Scrabble, but 3-demensional, if you’re not familiar. Angie is crazy good at word games. I’m…not. LOL! After that, even though it was late, we started a game of Mexican Train Dominos. Only Dave and I had played before, but the others picked it up really quickly and I think we all had fun. They didn’t end up leaving until 3:30 am!

I don’t normally detail parties on here, but I was remembering how worried I was when the club opened about losing our community. I can now say for sure that that is NOT the case. If anything I’m getting closer to everyone. We get more small group time with certain people so we get to know them even better. I’m loving it!

I’m also very happy to note that I can host a party and keep it almost completely healthy! I was “bad” near the end and had a few drinks, and the girls each had one. But otherwise, our dinner was mostly veggies, just a little brown rice and some chicken. We measured the oil to keep that in check. We left feeling good and clean and healthy instead of nasty with grease congealing in our veins. A healthy party CAN be done!