Meg Rose HOOPS: I'm getting there!!!

I've been logging all hooping activity since I last posted the day before Thanksgiving. I'm not going to put up my whole log here (who would read that?) but have included just a sample for the last few days, because I'm so pleased at my improvement by my 11'th session.

And maybe it will give some hope to somebody starting out, because perhaps it's as gosh durned hard for them to learn as it has been for me.I'm definitely learning to recover the hoop when it starts to move down from my waist. Also learning to straighten my torso more when I get up to about 20 or 30 range. Which feels good and seems like it both helps the hooping and my posture work.

11'th hooping session TODAY 30 minutes (at least) 3 sets of double arm hooping 24 instances of HIGH SUCCESS hooping (more than 10) an average of 41.75 twirls/high success - helped along by once doing 130 and another time 170! (plus several other high counts)

10'th hooping session YESTERDAY - a very good day - 30 minutes (at least) 2 sets double arm hooping 17 HIGH SUCCESS an average of 25.24 twirls/high success

I'll be Hooping for Thanksgiving

I've been learning to hoop for the last week. Holy Moses is it hard! Today I celebrated my seventh session! At this point in my hooping career, the exercise consists mostly of an attempt, the movement of the hoop somewhere in the vicinity of my waist and then, after 5-8 twirls of the hoop the descent of that hoop onto the ground. I lean over, pick it up, catch my breath and repeat the process. (I got my purple and green waist and arm hoop set from Canyon Hoops http://www.canyonhoops.com/)

However I've had several high-count attempts now.I tracked my high successes today. A high success attempt is when I manage to keep the waist hoop going more than 10 times before it drops. Here are my high successes for tonight.

15 , 15, 30, 28, 21 (arm hoop recess) 12, 27, 22 39, 14

I bet there are people that would learn this skill a lot faster than I am. Over the past week, I had to really work on believing (remember that saintly little engine that could?) that I would manage to keep the hoop up. The first session or two I worked at it for about 10 minutes before stopping all sweaty and wiped out. My goal was to be able to work on hooping for 30 minutes by Thanksgiving. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and today I did work at it for 30 minutes!!!

I can now, mostly, identify when I'm doing it right and getting the desired 'pump' feeling. Over the last two days I've decide that the next important challenge is to learn to recover the hoop. I know that a few times I have managed to recover it and continue. It seems that I have recovered by some variation on a squat (which I saw in the hooping book I checked out of the library) involving more of a forward thrust. It seems though, that sometimes the hoop isn't in the place I need it to be to do this. Sometimes it just seems like it's going to slowly to catch. Also sometimes I think I manage to recover by speeding up my pumping motion but sometimes it seems that I'm not managing to touch the hoop enough despite increasing my speed.

One day this week I managed to keep the hoop rotating for a count of 84. I never came close to that since then! I start out by hooping with a small arm hoop on each arm (one at a time for now) for a few minutes (2 different orientations on each arm). Then I switch to the waist and hoop until I need a break. I then do my arms again with the other 2 arm orientations. After that I go back to hooping at the waist.

My next goal is to get better at recovering.

I'm happy I found a low-impact aerobic exercise I enjoy. I particularly like the feeling after you're done and cooling off, without the knee stress I used to get running. I really felt the results of this activity in the muscles of my back for the first several days but they have pretty much stopped complaining. I now just feel rather aware of them during the day.

I'm not going to stop being a walker, by the way. I still enjoy walking my errands and currently walk 4-5 miles a day.

Goin' down the road feelin' bad

What is the name of that Grateful Dead song?

CA grape vines in their fall wardrobe

I love the sights on the drive down CA 101 between the San Francisco Bay Area and San Luis Obispo, but I sure do dislike sitting in the car and worse yet being the driver, as I was this weekend. We've got those little communications devices like they had on Star Trek, how come we can't beam ourselves places yet? It would sure save on gas prices too.

I headed down to see my sweet daughter at Cal Poly but on the way back I drove along Las Pilitas Road to buy CA native plants from Penny at the Las Pilitas Nursery . I'd been meaning to get there on a Saturday for awhile. It's the only day of the week they are open to the public. Which makes it that much more intriguing!

If we could beam ourselves wherever we wanted, I'm afraid that Las Pilitas would be ruined. You know why it's so good. It takes a while to get there and it's off the beaten path.

Along the road I stopped to see the old Railroad bridge.

This California Buckwheat was also growing along the roadway. My last native plant class was in 1976 but Penny confirmed for me that yes, this is Flat-Top Buckwheat

Eriogonum fasciculatum foliolosum

A flock of wild turkeys raced across the road. I think they are the wild variety. We have them up here too. I recognize them because they look exactly like the ones on the whiskey bottle. Unfortunately by the time I got the camera out they had zippity-do-dahed out into the meadow. They are no fools, these birds, despite what you hear.

Halloween Out Our Way

FIRST
We spread sand on the mossy walkway so the cute little trick-or-treaters wouldn't break their dear little legs


THEN
We both carved pumpkins. Mine was the cute one

SOON
Amanda came. When you give her a piece of candy, she puts one of HERS back into your bowl. It's a fair trade, don't you think? Her father was trying to teach her just to take the candy. I like her way best


NEXT
Dashiel arrived and blew smoke for me like a real dragon.

. . .

This beautiful lady ALSO came over and watched all the trick or treaters from the front porch. I'm sorry to say she's moved on this morning.

Pianoforte versus the BIG sound

Friday night I hopped on my bike and pedaled over to hear Ted Good play his "little red fellow" a reproduction Cristofori Fortepiano in a small concert hall at Stanford University. It was a personal experience. The soft sound of Little Red gave me the sense that Ted was making the music personally. The reverberating echo of our modern pianos was still to come, every note has a hand made feeling to it. Trills didn't echo but were delightfully different. Other than the up-close-and-personal sound, the bass notes sounded the most different. There was a kind of sharp 'boing' sound. I wonder if this is because all the strings (of which there are two for every hammer) are the same width. My 1903 Chickering piano, like my 2007 steel-string guitar have bass strings that are much thicker than the treble.

Saturday night I again biked over to Stanford (the ride over is fine if I leave around sunset, but coming back in the dark with no moon, there were a few very, very dark spots). This time to hear a chorus of nearly 150 people singing Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah" in the Stanford Memorial Church. The performance was the culmination of a one-day workshop of people from many choruses and choirs. (I had a conflict during the day but- yes- I would love to have been singing.) This was BIG sound. I don't know what the official word is on the acoustics there but I got a great deal of pleasure when the director, Craig Jessop, long-time director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, raised his baton at the end of an air and I could feel the sound float up and resonate in the top of the dome. He also did an excellent job of organizing the group. There was a kind of angel choir effect in the middle that was particularly good. Though I figured out where my own voice part (the sopranos) were standing, versus the altos, I never quite figured out what voice part those young women were singing.

The mezzo soloist was the best. Her enunciation, emotion and the way her voice reached out to the audience was wonderful. During her character's angry speeches she flipped the pages of her music with impatience and in the soft gentle parts they were handled with a soft, delicate touch. I felt like the soprano soloist could have sent her voice out more, though she had a lovely bell-like ring. I sat up front in the middle and so was very close to the 18 piece students in the Stanford Symphonic Orchestra. There were some special instrumental bits that echoed beautifully, and were extremely well exectued, for first violin and cello when they go off with the melody. A nice air for a pair of flutists towards the end as well.

Soloists for Elijah
Michael Morris – Bass (Elijah)
Wendy Hillhouse – Mezzo
Sharon Davis – Soprano
Pedro Betancourt – Tenor

It's all in the Story

My now-a-college-sophomore daughter and I both took community college summer school. I think I enjoyed it more because I didn't have to take it. I took 3 classes and, as much as I liked it, it is nice to be able to take some time out to hang out in the patio now as my daughter and her little bug-eyed dog are doing here!

I took six week of Italian, 2 hours a day four days a week from the best language teacher I’ve ever had, and maybe the best teacher I’ve ever had. Apparently he’s not going to teach there anymore, but I’m glad I got to have him while I did. His approach was to base everything around the story. So we worked and re-worked the dialogs in the book, and also ones he had written, in all kinds of ways. You told and retold the story orally and in writing. You answered his questions, your own questions and your neighbors questions. I really focused on telling the stories in my own voice, using the words I would try to use if I were in Italy telling somebody about something. I really enjoyed sitting down and working on my homework! It was a very exciting approach and I’m working on incorporating it into my writing and other things I do. I’m interested in seeing what came out of it for me the next time I’m teaching math or language arts or whatever comes up. So often I get a chance to think on my feet when I’m subbing. Even the best-laid sub plans don’t always pan out or else there are kids who run out of things to do, or else just in explaining the idea or directing the kids you need different approaches. Often in math classes kids will finish early and I say “Ok write and illustrate a word problem that is just a little bit challenging.” And then I edit it. I find that kind of editing a lot more straightforward and immediate, than the kind for essays and social studies reports.

Stash Sewing: Frog on a Buttercup

[img]http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/180492_FrogOnButtercupTurquoiseStripeBag.jpg[/img]Decreasing what I own makes life seem less overwhelming. Another good reason to shop my stash

Inspired by the purses, bags and wallets forum at www.crafster.org, I made a variation on a Buttercup Purse/Bag.

You can find the pattern for these bags at

http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html

I also made a matching top.

[img]http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/180492_turquoisestripetopandbag.jpg[/img]

The fabric is a light weight denim I held on to for too long. Feels great to use it up!

Stash Sewdown is furthered by repeating the use of the same, well-fitting, happy-making patterns. I've made several of these tops lately and two of these purses, in different sizes and fabrics.