~ Yo-Yo Ma ~

by Tina~in_ut

My sister isn't the obsessive type, nothing like me in that respect, but if you mention Yo-Yo Ma, she just melts. It's really rather strange because she isn't ga-ga over anyone else, doesn't have to be first or the best (maybe because she usually is in everything she does), and doesn't really have any hobbies, like I do. She is a High School Spanish teacher at an all girls school. In her classes, while the girls are taking their tests, she plays Yo-Yo's music. She makes up practice dialog lessons for her students using their new vocabulary words, verbs, and Yo-Yo. They practice telling him that they love him and he tells them that they make him nervioso (nervous). She give extra credit questions on her tests like:

• Where was Yo-Yo Ma born? or
• Where did Yo-Yo Ma earn his degree from? or
  
• When is Yo-Yo Ma's birthday?

The girls don't know the answers and it drives them nuts. Our entire family knows that Yo-Yo was born in Paris on October 7, 1955 and graduated from Harvard. Why do we know this? My sister asks her neice and nephews these same questions and more, and if they get the answer right, she will give them a stick of gum. All the kids love gum. Do you know what "award" Yo-Yo won in 2001? In People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue, he "won" Sexiest Classical Musician. Oh brother! I purposely cal him yo-Yo ma (with emphasis on the second Yo!) and I say that he was born in Perris, CA (we used to go camping there when we were little!) Drives sis batty~ (which is what I'm here for!) Don't worry! She rolls her eyes and calls me an idiot!

All of her students know about her love of Yo-Yo and his music. She has a poster or two of him in her classroom. The girls bring her Yo-Yo related gifts. One year, a group of girls got together to make her a t-shirt and included Yo-Yo on it. A couple of months ago, one of her former students came running into her classroom in between classes to tell her that Yo-Yo was playing at a benefit and since all the tickets were not sold, they were going on sale to the public. It was to be held at a small theater in Irvine, CA and you had to call the theater directly to get the tickets. Now how did this precious girl know this? Her grandmother heard it on the radio and thought of her granddaughter's teacher. She immediately texted said granddaughter with all the information. (I'm rolling my eyes just remembering!) Said granddaughter read her granny's text during class even though it's against school policy to use cell phones during the day, and after class made a mad dash to my sister's classroom! (I'm shaking my head now!)

For Christmas this year, my daughter and I made my sis a Yo-Yo Ma t-shirt. My lovely sister does not do crafty. In fact, I usually make it a point to create some sort of masterpiece to give her every Christmas just because she can't stand crafty! :D But I digress. It was my daughter's idea to make the t-shirt, but of course, I had to do all the work. The picture above is the t-shirt we made her. When we went to CA after Christmas, we gave it to her almost immediately. Neither one of us could wait! She laughed so hard. She actually liked it and planned on wearing it to class. I felt kind of bad because I never asked her about the concert. She loved it and I asked her how many songs he played. Since it wasn't an actual "concert", I wondered how many he'd play. I felt awful for her when she told me that he only played three songs. Then I laughed my head off when she looked at me funny and said, "He played three, but they were each a half hour long and there was an intermission after the second!"

Yo-Yo seems like a sweet man with an extraordinary gift. I had a hard time choosing a video, but I think this one captures the essence of him~

You'll have to click here because this one doesn't allow posting~