Marc-Andrè Fleury's Big Day.

Marc-Andrè Fleury is...in a word, hysterical. Love him and his happy-go-lucky ways. My mom loves him too. Whenever Marc is interviewed, she shushes me so that she can hear whatever adorable thing is about to come out of his mouth. He is always doing something adorable- like after they won the Stanley Cup, and a reporter doing a live post- game interview asked him what he was thinking when there was a play for a goal in the last few seconds of the game, and he said "I was like, 'oh shit!'...(laughs) oh sorry!", or whenever the poles of a goal make a save, he pats them and says thanks. Claims he goes bilingual when he speaks to them.

Sarah and Theo know how I love to make fun of poor Marc when I'm watching hockey. It goes slightly like this:
Where iz de puck? Oh! Der it iz, I am sooo sill-ee! I found eu, eu sill-ee puk! Come bak 'ere Henri! (in a sing-song voice) My name is Marc-Andrè, I like to find de puk...

I am always ashamed, but speaking in a horrible French accent and pretending to be Marc always sends me into giggles. Henri is what Marc has nick-named the puck in this little game.

The truth is, Marc Andrè reminds me of me (obviously, this is why my mother finds him so irresistibly adorable). We both screw up in comic and seemingly impossible ways, and fix it in quirky, fun ways: Marc-Andrè locks him and his girlfriend in the basement of his house and has to break the door down. I lock me and my dog Sadie outside at midnight and have to go up to the fire station at the top of my street to call my grandparents.

Here's another example from Marc's day with The Cup: After enjoying a hearty bowl of cereal from the bowl of the Cup, Marc-Andrè decided to take the Cup for a spin in his boat, but five minutes in, the boat conks out. So a friend back at the dock climbs onto a Sea- Doo to tow in the laughing Marc-Andrè when on his way, the Sea-Doo dies too. More hysterical laughter. A neighbor came to tow them in, but Marc finally figures out that the rope was wound around the propeller and waves the neighbor off with, once again, a laugh. Worst part? His party-goers have arrived by now and are watching this from the dock. Ouch.

When my family went on a Disney Cruise a few years ago, we were docked on an island and my mom and I decided to take a motorized lawn chair out into the water. I mean, when I write it out like that, it seems like such an obviously bad idea, but the point is, it quit about five minutes out and we had to wait 20 minutes for the guys who ran the station to realize and hop on their Sea-Doos and tow us back in. In our motorized, floating lawnchair.

Marc-Andrè and I have the same views on life, basically- crazy stuff happens and life, and you either have to laugh or cry. We choose to laugh, mostly out of necessity, since stuff like this seems to happen to people like us with a much higher frequency than regular people.
Anyways, the rest of the party was in the backyard of Marc's parents in Sorel where 200 family members, friends and neighbors were gathered to celebrate, despite being interrupted by rain. After yet another party at a friends house, Marc was escorted by police and firetrucks to meet Mayor Marcel (yes, like Ross' monkey on Friends) and 10,000 fans by the waterfront. He got on stage in front of the crowd where the mayor presented Marc's mother, sister and girlfriend with flowers (aww, how cute) and congratulated him. Also there were Beauchemin and former Stanley Cup champions Pierre Mondou (won in 1977, 1978 and 1979 with Montreal) and Eric Messier (a member of Colorado's championship team in 2001).

At 7:30, Marc-Andrè took the Stanley Cup to le Club de Gold Sorel-Tracy 'Les Dunes' for a private celebration. He and his family were able to relax over a dinner while off to the side was an ice sculpture depicting the Stanley Cup and his number 29.

I think the description given by the Hockey Hall of Fame journal summs up the day best:
Never once relinquishing his broad smile, Marc-Andre looked on as a band played and dancing began. It had been an exhausting day, but worth every second of the effort it took for Marc-Andrè Fleury to share his momentous celebration.

Right on Marc-Andrè. We may get ourselves into some trouble, but we always come out smiling.
-CE