hula hoop! and alma mater

[keryx]

My adorable, huge red-covered Betty Hoop came the other day. After an hour (except smoke break) of heating one end and wiggling and shoving it up against a wall and resorting to duct tape to put the thing together, I have to say it's the source of all joy.

It's also exhausting. It took me (only!) two days to remember how to hoop, but I get tired after about a minute.

And I think I do it a lot differently than when I was a kid. I thought it was a fairly rigid body thing, and that's what all the hooping sites say - but what's actually working is basically an exaggerated version of the hula ami, which is basically a hip circle with your pelvis tucking under and your top half released but not really moving all that much. See! It is like hula.

And! If it starts to fall down, you can bend a little, and it comes back up with you. If you do tilt your whole body far back/forward/sideways, you can get a cool oscilloscope thing going. Physics! In action! Joy! And the whole slight squat it requires is totally going to help me with the levels and stuff I'm afraid of with dance.

Seriously, how exciting is that? Everybody needs a giant hula hoop, I tell you.

Also. Today I drove through campus at Dear Old Shiz, and had a very excellent sammich. I'm feeling healed by the constancy of my 300 year old college, even if all its students are given to interrupting other ideas to quibble on the internets about whether its a college or a university. It's exactly the same, plus a few buildings and minus a couple of others. That's nice sometimes, you know?

P.S. - it's the latter, dammit.

Comments

[momsmilkrules.livejournal.com]

sweet, I got to watch a woman fire spin with her hula hoop last week and it RAWKED. I'm thinking I need to get back to hula hooping myself, it will help with that midbody movement stuff that I need to work on for bellydancin'.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

Am I so self-absorbed that I didn't know you bellydanced? DOH! What kind do you do?

[fierceawakening.livejournal.com]

The "Betty Hoop" link doesn't work.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

oops - it's bettyhoopS.com, not the singular. :)

[snidegrrl.livejournal.com]

you people are going to convince me to get a hoop, arent you!

[jane-ire.livejournal.com]

Hula hoop! It is a lot like belly dancing, which I did briefly. In any case, it's great for your abs. :)

[keryx.livejournal.com]

you should - it's awesomely fun, and we could all get together in a park and hoop! plus, while I don't think this is AT ALL the point, it actually is a bit of a workout.

[momsmilkrules.livejournal.com]

No, your not self-absorbed, I just haven't been real vocal about it, I just started learning and I didn't really know there were different kinds. I learned at a workshop and well I spent the week with the teacher and got to learn lots, but she never mentioned a specific discipline, she learned in India.

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

yes! yes! they are so much fun! and pretty. and just lovely and a tiny bit surrealistic-looking when they're just sitting around the house.