Life: Idiotropic

Tonight Italy earned the World Cup in a shootout and I was there to see it...

Well, I was not really there, but tonight I watched the last half of the game and all the overtime at our favorite Italian restaurant chatting with everyone, eating pizza and tartufo, and waiting for a goal that never quite came.

I've never seen a World Cup game before, in fact, I haven't seen any soccer game since my freshman year of high school, so I'd really hoped that I'd see one while living here - especially with Germany hosting, I thought I should at least see a game on TV. So Kirk watched part of the first half at the restaurant (one block away), then he came home when half time was over and Tiara and I enjoyed the second half, her sitting on a bar stool, me standing - both of us amongst a small crowd of people all gathered around the television in the corner. Almost everyone wore blue - the Italian jersey color. Polish, German, Italians, and Americans were all there and almost everyone wore blue. Guissepi had his really tall hat of red, green, and white and others wore the team cap. Everyone there cheered for Italy. It was tied 1 to 1 and remained so through 90 minutes of game and another 30 of overtime. In the first and only shootout, Italy got all 5 penalty shots sealing the win against France with only 4. It was great. There was yelling and screaming and pounding on tables. The Italian owner and his brother both ran out into the street yelling, then ran back in and hugged their friends. Tiara and I are not quite that type to be so loud, so we sat quietly huddled together in the group, smiling, cheering quietly, and just observing. When the game was over and the yelling paused, she and I left - kind of anticlimactly, but it was time to go.

Now the honking starts... I hope it doesn't last too long. We've already had a group go by singing. And there are whistles and bicycle horns - anything to make noise.

I wish I had a photo to post. I should have brought my camera. The restaurant was a sea of blue - all those people in jerseys with the big grins on their faces would have made a good photo - next time... in four years... I think Europe is the best place to be for this. One man said tonight that soccer is in their heart.

I think I'll get a souvenier hat tomorrow if there are any left. A drunk guy tried to give Tiara his hat - she politely, but wisely refused. Smart kid.