||..forza azzurri..||

Whoa. I finally get chance to post up an entry. This week has been pretty busy and random...all week I was doing a Kids Bible Camp with Ray Cay (VIVA!!!! :P) and then there was beach volleyball and friends over for dinner..paintballing (scariest shit evar!) and of course...the World Cup Italian Win!!

Well, I really want to write this out to tell of the happenings of Sunday, July 09, 2006. A day that will go down in history for Italians.

So, my family went to mass the Saturday night so that we didn't have to go Sunday morning. Instead, we spent that Sunday morning decorating the house and porch with Italian flags. And blasted Italian music from our porch. It was soooo fun!

Then the game began. 2PM!
My whole family was glued to the screen in our living room. Even my older brother who isn't much into sports...but he'll support big time...especially if Italy gets into the finals. Surprisingly, the game was rather calm...which made me calm. My brother was freakin out though. Haha. Along with my momma.

Then France got a penalty shot. Zidane got it in. The first goal that Italy let in from an opposing player during the whole competition. Booo!
But Zidane looked a little odd...I mean, I thought that the shot didn't go in because he looked a little disgruntled and unhappy when he shot it in. Why aren't you happy dude!? You shot a goal in the World Cup finals!!
I dont understand. SOmething was definitley wrong with the dude that day. *headbutt...ahem*

Anyways. So 12 minutes later, Italy scores and ties the game. Woooohoo! My family went crazy when we scored. We ran out onto the porch and screamed our heads off...along with the other Italian neighbours on my street. We scared some people walking down the street. Haha!!

The game was pretty good after that. Although very long.

Yadda yadda...you guys should know how the game all ended.
That headbutt! WOOOOOW!
Now I know that there is a whole controversy about what was said between Materazzi and Zidane. But psyching someone out verbally is part of practically every sport. And I bet alot of people talked about his mother before...and according to Materazzi he would never say anything horrible about someone's mother because he lost his own mother when he was very young. I don't know what to believe...but what Zidane's actions were pretty unpredictable and uncalled for ...but it was a fantastic twist to the game.

When my family saw that on the tv for the first time, we freaked out and yelled at the tv for a good 3 minutes. And then when the ref gave him the red card, we cheered as if Italy had won the game. It was pretty hilarious.

Then it was penalty shot time. OH man...my heart was racing and I couldn't breathe or stand still.
What an exhilirating and terrifying moment that was.
When Grosso scored I couldn't believe it. I felt like crying.
I was soooo overcome with joy and happiness. All I could do was scream and jump and hug.
The cup is back in the hands of the Italians!

I honestly thought that I was not going to see this happen until I was a mother or something. Not as soon as I thought it would be. But I dont mind.

As soon as we won, my family, again, ran outside and we hugged our Italian neighbours and cheered. Within a couple minutes, my family gathered up all the flags that we had displayed on our porch and made our way onto St.Clair.
My house is literally around the corner...and they had my street closed off...and Dufferin was packed with people...alot of people were walking on the street among the cars.
We then turned the corner and were on St.Clair and I was in awe. St.Clair West was closed off...well, the regular area is, that is. But not only that...but the entire Dufferin and St.Clair intersection was swarming with people. And most of Dufferin was swarming with people..in that area. And then St.Clair east of Dufferin had two lanes of the street packed with people. I've never seen it that packed before.

I was just so happy and proud to be Italian at that moment.

While we walked down the street, my little brother was holding a sign that I had concocted. It read, "Today's Special: French Toast". Yeah, it was a pretty popular sign that night. Genius...that I am! Haha.

Um...so pretty much, if you were holding the sign...you felt like a celebrity cause everyone would stop and read out the sign and laugh. Or they would make you stop and pose with the sign. Or pose with you. High five you. I even had a guy dance with me. It was friggin hilarious!

Along our way down St.Clair, we managed to meet up with Anthony. Wheeee!! He was so patriotic and it made me oh so happy!
We kept walking on St.Clair and I saw Joel, Brandon and Frank. Then we managed to run into Megan...whom I haven't seen in forever. I luv that girl!
We also ran into my mom's cousin and her family.

A couple "photoshoots" later, we met up with Ray and his friend Amanda. Yeah, so the story goes that Ray supports and roots for France...even though he is Philipino. Now, at the beginning of the whole tournament, he kept saying that Italy and France were going to be in the finals. And, alas, the 'Power of Ray' worked again. But he did say that if Italy won the cup, that he would come on St.Clair and celebrate with my family. And he kept his promise.

He didn't have anything with him that was Italian...so we gave him a flag to hold and the sign to hold. Hahah! He stuck out like a sore thumb.

We ran into some media, and at that point, I was holding the sign again...and there was this guy on the roof taping..for I believe, CityTV. He got me in his shot.

And then we walked a little more and ran into Global. The cameraman gave me a bunch of signals to stand in the right spot so that my sign could be seen behind the reporter. So I pretty much was guaranteed to be on TV. Funny thing was, even though I was directly beside the reporter...I did not hear a single word that came out of his mouth. In fact, I didn't even hear him speak...that's how loud it was.

When that commotion was all over, I noticed that someone across the crowd was taking a picture of my sign...and I was thinking that he resembled Mr.Q. Then I heard my mom say that same thing outloud. And when he put the camera down..it was him! So I yelled out his name and ran to him. And he looked so surprised..but so full of joy. I gave him a HUGE hug. And he introduced us to his dad. And then he gave us all these Italian braided things that he made with his Nonna during the game.

He left us. And then we managed to meet up with Natasha. She had just got back from work. Pretty damn happy to see her and celebrate with her.

We brought the whole bunch of us back to my house for a break from whoo-ing and ole-ing and walking. We had already been walking for a good 3 hours. Plus, we hadn't eaten anything. So we had some snacks on my porch and talked. Listened to some Italian music and blasted it. My mommy and I danced the tarantella a couple times. Our neighbours joined in.

After an hour of recooperating, we were back on St.Clair...sans Ray and Amanda though. This time we decided to head down east of Dufferin on St.Clair...since we had to return a rented DVD to the store anyway.

And of course, the party was still going on. And the cameras popping out from everywhere were still showing up to take pics of the sign.

I had to meet up with Alicia and Anna somehow...but they didnt have a cell phone so I was going to wait till they called me on the pay phone somewhere on St.Clair. It turns out that we bumped right into them while they were walking. Yayyyyy! I was so uber happy to meet up with them.

We continued back to Dufferin St....and managed to meet up with David and hs super tall and super insane friend, Matthew.

Matthew is so crazy. He insisted on wearing a suit. Simply because he said that it was the occassion to dress up.
When he joined us...the energy of our group went up a notch. Even though we already were "popular" cause of the sign...we now had this crazy loud guy with us. He took the sign and just went insane. Hah. He is awesome.

We then dropped off Anthony at his house...cause he had to wake up early the next morning for work.
As we started heading back in the opposite direction, we ran into Sam and her family. Whhhheeeeeeee!! I was super happy to see her too!
RED HAIR!! LOVE IT!!

Sam and her sis Rebecca somehow managed to become part of our travelling group. Heh. Oh yeah...and we also saw Tonelli and De Francesca and some other Dante teachers partying it up on St.Clair.

My parents and younger brothers than left us to head for home, while the rest of us crazy teens partyed on the famous ITalian street.

So many randoo people came up to me that night too. Hah. One chick came up to me, shook my hand and said that it was a great day and wished me a great night. Then some other chick walked by me...quickly said..."Aww...you're so pretty"...then walked off. Weird.

Somehow...while that was all happening, we were on CityTV...but we lost Alicia and Anna. We stood around and waited for them to pop up somehow. But they never showed so we decided to continue to walk in the direction of my house. Along the way...webumped into Missy Paula!

It was also a little SLR reunion for David and her...they both went on SLR way back in 2004 and hadnt seen each other since. Hah. It was sweet.
The group of us continued on and we all went again to my house...for some pizza pockets, water and snacks.

(My awesome neighbour and Matthew!)

And after a really long day of partying and whistling...we decided it was time to call it a night. We all walked home Sam and her sis. Then we walked home Tasha. Then it was back to my house....and David and Matteo said goodbye to us. And the celebration was over for us...at 1am.

What an awesome day it was. A day definitley to go down in history. The greatest night of my life. I swear, you could not wipe that smile off my face. I was just so happy. It was definitley a day of reunions and a day to feel like we are still a community. Although...it was the first time in my life where I saw so many non-Italians waving Italian flags and cheering. I swear, tons of Asians, Carribeans, Africans, Indians....they came out of the woods or something. Haha. Even though they are not Italian...at least they supported us...and had a great time partying with us. We Italians know how to throw a street party.
I can only imagine how crazy it was in Italy...hopefully my Nonna was awake to see some of the celebration. Or at least watch the game. Haha.