Swampwater Debutante

First: I answer a question. Heather asked if my video was reversed or am I really a leftside hooper?

No reversal! I do hoop to the left, primarily, though I can generally hoop right as well, a little. My dominant direction for dancing and skating was always left, so I’m not much surprised.

I bat and throw right, though. Oddly enough.

I’ve been hooping like crazy, and as a result I find myself trying to reconnect with the hooping community. I lost the plot there a bit when I wasn’t able to hoop – didn’t want to know what was moving ahead while I was stuck sitting on my ass. Childish, I know, but not being allowed to hoop made me grumpy. It really is as good as Lexapro, for me.

Now that I am hooping again, I’m hoopblogging a bit more at Hoop City, leaving comments on hooping videos, trying to reach out. I revisited my “Healing In The Hoop” video and was touched all over again by the love and support and stories that poured in from all over the world.

I found out today that that video was nominated for Hooping Video of the Year and I for New Hooper of the Year at the 2010 Hoopie Awards from Hooping.org.

Okay. Ten seconds please. I’m still tearing up.

This is…incredible. How else to put it? I mean, if you’ve been reading for a few years, you know how sheerly angry and bitter I was for a very long time. The firestorm I endured left me alive, but flayed, raw, furious. I was drowning in my own rage, had nothing to focus on to pull my attention away from the pain, so I was getting lost in it.

And then I picked up a hoop.

Magic cure all? No. I’m still pretty sarcastic and bitter and nowhere near forgiving my tormentors. But the constant feeling of my heart turning somersaults in my chest is gone. The gaping hole I felt punched through me is sealed over. I’m generally happy so much of the time – and I am not going to attribute this entirely to hooping, but I will say that’s what started pulling me out of the hole.

And I know when I can’t hoop, the cranky bitch comes back out. The months I spent rehabbing and resting really just pissed me off. But overall? I am a whole new person. I am not who I was before I discovered hooping.

So I owe hooping and the hooping community a great debt of gratitude already, then this happens!

Would it be awesome to win? Duh. But I am realistic. My video is up against a lot of really amazing ones, including one featuring one of my personal hoop heroes, Brecken Rivara – if my video wasn’t nominated I’d beg you to vote for hers, she’s so fucking insanely incredible.

And New Hooper of the Year? There’s five other hoopers in there, and I bet none of them were sidelined by a stupid injury for most of the year.

So I don’t imagine my chances are great, and that’s okay. It’s a delightful shock just to be nominated. I never, ever anticipated it in a million years.

If you want to vote for me or any others, here is the place to be. Read the rules carefully and watch all the videos, look at all the photos. We’ll all be happy to receive votes if it means you looked at all of the best things the hooping community has to offer!

Oh MAN. This is really just all kinds of stupid awesome wonderfulness. I cannot thank the nominators enough. I can’t thank the entire hooping community and my non-hooping supporters enough. I love you all!