yo-yo guy
I was in the dry sauna at my gym a while back trying to sweat off some unwanted pounds-I’ve heard that diet and exercise is the key, but sweating a little can’t hurt-when I met a very interesting man. He was the only other person in the sauna, and the rules on the back of my guy card say that I’m not supposed to start a conversation.
So there I am staring blankly at the opposite wall, like I’m on an overheated wooden elevator when I hear a shik shik noise. I assume that the other guy in the sauna is adjusting his clothes or wiping some sweat off, but I can’t look to check because of my guy card. About a minute later I hear the same distinctive shik shik noise and this time I caught a flicker of movement with my peripherals.
Now I’m waiting intently – still not looking directly – because I’ve got to figure out what this shik shik noise is. After about two more cycles, I catch a glimpse. The guy has yo-yo’s in each hand. When he thinks I’m not looking, he flings them across the sauna.
It’s not every day where you see grown men playing with yo-yo’s so I start to devise a strategy… My curiosity is outweighing the sauna-conversation taboo. After the next time the guy throws the yo-yo’s, I strike.
“Are you practicing for something?” I say
He looks shocked and a little embarrassed “No, it’s just something I do”
Silence
I ask him, “Is it something you do for work?”
Even more embarrassed, “No, nothing like that.”
I realize that I’m not going to get him to open up with direct questions, so I told him about the yo-yo demonstrations that they do at my kid’s school. Yo-yo professionals come in and do demonstrations complete with a soundtrack and lighting. The school sells the yo-yo’s as some kind of fund raiser.
I told him how I always end up shelling out ten to twenty dollars so my kids can buy the super yo-yo’s and do all of the cool tricks. My kids have about the same attention span as I did as a kid. They play with the yo-yo until they become passably proficient and then the yo-yo ends up in a knot at the bottom of a drawer. The next year, they convince themselves that the reason that they couldn’t learn the tricks was because they didn’t have the yo-yo with the bearings in it and I end up shelling out another twenty bucks.
While I’m telling my story yo-yo guy begins to visibly relax. The shik shik gets more frequent and he begins to throw a few variations instead of the basic shik shik one-two throws. I ask him if he does any of the tricks that the pros do at my kid’s school.
“I just do simple stuff” he says
Sensing that he’s ready to tell me a little more I move in for the kill. “Why do you do it?” I ask.
“It helps me relax” he says.
“Kind of like meditation?” I volunteer.
“Actually it’s more of a compulsion.” He admits.
Now it’s really getting interesting. “I can think of worse habits to have” I say.
Over the next half hour I learn a great deal about the “sport” of yo-yo and yo-yo guy. The most surprising thing was that there is a yo-yo museum in Chico, Ca. I also learned that if you have more than a two week yo-yo attention span, you have to replace your strings. Yo-yo guy goes through a couple thousand strings a year by his estimate. Yo-yo guy was diagnosed with OCD, his compulsive energies were channeled to his yo-yos. I wonder if yo-yo guy would still be considered sick if he had a job going to schools and selling yo-yos.
It’s too bad that yo-yo guy is about ten years older than me. If he were my age, he would have grown up watching “School House Rock” on Saturday mornings. He would have seen the “It’s Your Job” short a couple thousand times and might have gotten himself a job with the traveling yo-yo salesmen, then he wouldn’t have OCD, he’d be a workaholic. Maybe all of the crazy people out there just need better career counselors
So there I am staring blankly at the opposite wall, like I’m on an overheated wooden elevator when I hear a shik shik noise. I assume that the other guy in the sauna is adjusting his clothes or wiping some sweat off, but I can’t look to check because of my guy card. About a minute later I hear the same distinctive shik shik noise and this time I caught a flicker of movement with my peripherals.
Now I’m waiting intently – still not looking directly – because I’ve got to figure out what this shik shik noise is. After about two more cycles, I catch a glimpse. The guy has yo-yo’s in each hand. When he thinks I’m not looking, he flings them across the sauna.
It’s not every day where you see grown men playing with yo-yo’s so I start to devise a strategy… My curiosity is outweighing the sauna-conversation taboo. After the next time the guy throws the yo-yo’s, I strike.
“Are you practicing for something?” I say
He looks shocked and a little embarrassed “No, it’s just something I do”
Silence
I ask him, “Is it something you do for work?”
Even more embarrassed, “No, nothing like that.”
I realize that I’m not going to get him to open up with direct questions, so I told him about the yo-yo demonstrations that they do at my kid’s school. Yo-yo professionals come in and do demonstrations complete with a soundtrack and lighting. The school sells the yo-yo’s as some kind of fund raiser.
I told him how I always end up shelling out ten to twenty dollars so my kids can buy the super yo-yo’s and do all of the cool tricks. My kids have about the same attention span as I did as a kid. They play with the yo-yo until they become passably proficient and then the yo-yo ends up in a knot at the bottom of a drawer. The next year, they convince themselves that the reason that they couldn’t learn the tricks was because they didn’t have the yo-yo with the bearings in it and I end up shelling out another twenty bucks.
While I’m telling my story yo-yo guy begins to visibly relax. The shik shik gets more frequent and he begins to throw a few variations instead of the basic shik shik one-two throws. I ask him if he does any of the tricks that the pros do at my kid’s school.
“I just do simple stuff” he says
Sensing that he’s ready to tell me a little more I move in for the kill. “Why do you do it?” I ask.
“It helps me relax” he says.
“Kind of like meditation?” I volunteer.
“Actually it’s more of a compulsion.” He admits.
Now it’s really getting interesting. “I can think of worse habits to have” I say.
Over the next half hour I learn a great deal about the “sport” of yo-yo and yo-yo guy. The most surprising thing was that there is a yo-yo museum in Chico, Ca. I also learned that if you have more than a two week yo-yo attention span, you have to replace your strings. Yo-yo guy goes through a couple thousand strings a year by his estimate. Yo-yo guy was diagnosed with OCD, his compulsive energies were channeled to his yo-yos. I wonder if yo-yo guy would still be considered sick if he had a job going to schools and selling yo-yos.
It’s too bad that yo-yo guy is about ten years older than me. If he were my age, he would have grown up watching “School House Rock” on Saturday mornings. He would have seen the “It’s Your Job” short a couple thousand times and might have gotten himself a job with the traveling yo-yo salesmen, then he wouldn’t have OCD, he’d be a workaholic. Maybe all of the crazy people out there just need better career counselors
