Nice to beat you!

Today was the big football match day. The plan was to meet Jamie at the Duke of Argyle at 5:30-ish to grab a bite to eat. While waiting there, I managed to be greeted by a smiling Travis, Koji, and 2 other Jays employees whose names I've forgotten (sorry!). They too were going for a quick eat before watching the game and graciously asked us to join them. It was quite the blast having jokes fly left, right, and centre in everyone's direction. I had no idea how much of a blast the guys could be!

On to the Rogers Centre, where I had to pick up my tickets at gate 3. The cheery elderly man at the front couldn't find my tickets, directing me to a second desk to check. Of course to get there I had to be frisked. After the semi-humiliation, there were no tickets. I went back to the elderly man and double checked to see if they were in the name of the person who left them for me (Nicola, once again a HUGE thanks!). Of course upon sifting through the envelopes once more, he magically finds the tix in my name! After giving the tickets, he manages to direct me to gate 5, where once AGAIN I had to be frisked. I guess security wanted to be extra cautious with a bunch of rowdy football supporters, but I still felt slightly demeaned to have to be felt up to get in to see a match. Especially when Travis and his crew managed to get in frisk-free because of their fancy-shmancy swipe cards!

I managed to see a reserve squad Sporting Lisbon defeat a youth squad Santos FC 5-3. The first half was quite non-eventful, with Sporting securing a 2-0 lead. A few adjustments led to a 2nd half where Santos first scored their first goal on an amazing individual effort, while their equalizer was secured through an unfair penalty given due to diving. After that Sporting's class blew apart the Santos side, of which not even ONE of their usual starting 11 played. All in all the atmosphere was quite different, and in a good way I must say. The passion the Portugese fans showed for their Sporting was commendable. Now only if we could get that devotion for the Jays!

At the end of the match, me and J-Roc decided to have a quick Tim Horton's run where we shot the breeze for a few minutes before heading off. I sure hope I haven't chewed his ear off with all my incessant chatter, as I'm sure it has the potential of getting on people's nerves. He SEEMED ok about it though.

Good night had overall, with further entertainment to be had Friday, when my main man Cedric plans something I'm sure will be SuperExtraFantastique!

Before I go, what with all my marriage talk over the past week, I found a quote I thought was quite interesting. It's very symmetrical with the viewpoint I, along with most Desi's come to agree with:

"A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences."

- Dave Meurer