Countdown, takeoff, wheeeee! I haven’t come down yet, and the book (and Christabel) will be flying for some time yet…

What a gorgeous night we had at the ever-so-festive Make-Out Room in San Francisco’s Mission district to celebrate the birth of our baby. I kept on whirling around to see yet another body I had to run and wrap my arms around!

From half a lifetime ago, representing my high school days, there was Cruz DeWilde, a mad genius who spends his spare time questioning whether the prevailing model of gravity is, in fact, correct. What better place to contemplate gravity than from within a hoop? He got a special copy of the book that was not only signed but kissed by yours truly, to make up for that time some 20 years back when I was too much the awkward nerdgirl to get to it in the passenger seat of his car.

Then there was the crew of writers from the San Francisco Writers Grotto (where a chunk of the book was written, and where guinea pigs Marianna and Helena tested drafts of the step-by-step instructions for complex moves). There was the superheroic hottie former firefighter turned novelist, Caroline Paul, who is thanked under my Acknowledgements in the book. That’s because when I was at my wit’s end with how to resolve any one of the many crises that arose during the writing, Caroline could be relied upon to provide steady, calm, logical advice. This is a woman who’s good in a crisis. She had John M and Steve M in tow, too, and the latter bought a book for his cute wife Denise cuz he’s hoping she’ll do some gyratin in this Jose Cuervo bikini he got her a while back. Other notable Grotto-ites in attendance were the pretty frackin phenomenal writer Peter Orner, and kindred spirit Chris Colin with his wife Amy Standen. Don’t worry: the two of them left their infant safely in the trunk of the car just so they could come check out the hoopenings without that nagging worry.

My bestest girl Antonella was there, of course. I didn’t get to tell this story in the book, but alongside everything else that hooping brought into my life, it brought me Antonella. We met at my very first HoopGirl hoop class back in August 2006. (If I’m not mistaken that was also Miss Rosie’s first. I remember her tiny dog Romie(?) shivering in the corner, watching the hoops fly.) And it was Antonella who insisted we check out the Bay Area Hoopers, and, once we were there, dragged my butt out of the bushes and into my hoop when I was too shy and overwhelmed by all the hooptalent to do anything but wide-eyed watching. My Antonella. She was there with her husband Roi, who happens to be the talented photographer who shot these back in March.

My worldchanging/sustainability peeps were also in da house: shiny-spirited Erica from the mighty mighty Free Range Studios (creators of The Meatrix and The Story of Stuff) and Quentin who’s supporting folks in the Tenderloin and Deborah who asks Should You Really Be A Lawyer and the remarkable Chid Liberty with the Liberian Women’s Sewing Project and the powerhouse Matt Lewis, whose feet you’ve gotta kiss for keeping the planet from melting.

And then there were the hoopers. Gobs of gorgeous hoopers: Annie, Claudia, Satise, the breathtaking Rich, Michael (whom I also Acknowledged on account of his generous loving and patient ways as one of my most influential hoopguides), Khan, Victor, Rosie, Heather, Jennaluna and Jenny, Corinne, Paige… so many I must be forgiven if I’ve left any off the list. See some stills of the hoopers here.

I think there were between 60 and 70 people who came out, all told, although by the midway point I’d consumed enough champagne that counting got hard … (Thanks to Obid, my friend Sue’s companion, who kept handing me those cute single-serving bottles of the stuff all night, and which by the end I was chugging beer-style, no glass required. Thank goodness my momma was tucked away in Berlin and couldn’t see her daughter commit such an abomination.) The bubbly made my second hooperformance especially exciting, as the hoop went flying out into the audience and towards the bar. Again and again. But everyone just cheered. Oh, joyous shining hooping community, I’ve missed you, while I’ve been off writing about you….