Bad Hotel Days

I spent Thursday and Friday at a hotel conference center, at a conference sponsored by the Women's Foundation of California. It was a tremendously interesting and energetic conference, filled with inspiring speakers and committed workers in California's nonprofit sector. I had eye opening conversations with the executive directors of Girls & Gangs, an LA based nonprofit that works to take girls out of the gang culture; Foundation for a College Education, from East Palo Alto, that helps 40 kids a year find places at college; and Breakthrough Silicon Valley, that concentrates on promoting achievement among high potential Latino kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, starting with middle school. I learned that the nonprofit sector employs 10% of the Californian workforce, and I found out what the "Tea Party" movement is. So it was all good.

Except for the eating. Which was not.

Well, you know how hotels and conferences go. First of all, you have to keep eating in order to stay awake, no matter how interesting the speakers may be. There is just something about sitting still for long periods, exercising only your ears, that makes that essential. Second, there is the constant stream of food. Coffee and cookies at break. Cooked breakfast. Tempting buffet at dinner. Drinks and dessert in the evening. It has to be described as a calorific couple of days.