2008-06-25 - 3:48 p.m.

....world cup on the drive...

The Drive in Funcouver is probably one of the best places in North America to watch the World Cup, I think. To start with, PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT IT, which is kind of crucial. Secondly, we seem to have most of the nationalities represented here, and they are out in full force supporting their teams. Thirdly, nearly all of the cafes have put up screens and tellies to broadcast the games. There are overwhelming cries of joy and despair that resonate down the street with each major play. I've already mentioned my own favorite coffee shop becoming a zoo for the France-Italy game.

We were back there today, to watch Deutschland defeat Turkey. It was a fun game, except when lightning struck in Basel, taking out the live feed for the ENTIRE WORLD, causing us to miss the second Turkish goal and the winning German goal!!! There must have been some VERY SWEATY Swiss engineers in Basel, trying to get those live feeds back up!!!

So Susi saw one of her three native countries reach the finals. (Actually, she slept through a lot of it, sucking on my finger, until her father screamed OHH! at one of the goals that we actually DID see - which made her eyes bug out of her head in shock, and there was no getting her back to sleep after that.)

Then we went home, with K celebrating with fellow fans we passed on the street and waving enthusiastically at a Volkswagen that passed waving a German flag out the window.

The only downside was that I encountered another meth-head - perhaps the same woman who accosted me over a year ago. She put her hands on me and pushed me out of her way, screaming, "Stop hogging the sidewalk, you Fat B**ch!" at me. It was startling at first. After K ducked into a store to buy some vegetables, it became even more disturbing when she stayed with me and continued to follow me, screaming at me and giving me the finger.

It is unsettling to have this happen and to be targeted a second time. The first feeling I had was rage, wanting to fight back. But instead I just kept turning around and walking away from her. Invoking her violence was not on my agenda for today... Several people stopped to stare at me, and I couldn't tell if they were startled by this woman, or if they thought I had done something to cause her rage. All I could say was, "poor woman clearly has some problems" as my face turned red. But eventually she went away.

So I was thinking of this woman when a traffic cop pulled up, stopped us, and rolled down his window. Perhaps he saw what had happened.

"Do you know who won the game?"

"Germany! 3-2!" We yelled back with smiles.