sending me spinning

If I were H.A.L., I would exclaim, "Dave...something wonderful is happening..."

I surf the web way too much, I will admit it. But it's worth it, when you stumble across that *one* idea, or person, or thing, or enterprise that gives you that big, giant boost that you had been long needing.

Stumble I did: look what I'm going to do!



Granted, I'm not going to look like these lovely Hoopnotica ladies for quite a while as I do it. But I think I'm on to something big here. I ordered a kit from Hoopnotica containing two hoops - one for myself, and one for my daughter, who is equally entranced and eager to begin with me. It also has the basic instructional DVD teaching some moves with the hoop so that you're dancing, and not just twirling it around your waist. This ain't your grandma's hula hoop. Unless you have a rad grandma -- I won't discount that.

My hopes for this undertaking: well, it's dance, and I can't say no to yet another dance form (long story, that one). But I am blown away by the potential that exists for me to connect with my daughter in a way that we can both be passionate about, and not just pretending to like it to please the other. (If you're a mom, you know how that works.)

My daughter doesn't have weight issues, thankfully, but she is so frustrated at her P.E. class. I marvel at how ridiculous it is that they make her class run laps (in the desert sun!) when they *know* that most of the kids have known little exercise in their lives. What kind of motivation is that to get fit? It's downright painful, if not dangerous. So I think that hooping with her is going to give her some confidence in situations like that, but more importantly, give us time to appreciate our together in a simple but incredibly fun way.

And oh, yeah, there's those extra pounds I've been wanting to drop...

In any case, we are still on vacation, and the kit I ordered awaits us back home. Suspense! We can't stop talking about hooping - it's kind of weird and obsessive of us, and the rest of the family is a bit put off, but they'll get it later when we're two superfit cuties walking around being...cute and superfit. And all slithery-cool and stuff.