There are days of type B, which in 90% of cases are  exactly the same like any other day, but I manage to stay ‘happy’ about it – well, you get it, ‘happy’ is not the exact word for me, but it works for contrast. Wake up – morning rituals – whatever/cleaning/tidying up the place – lunch rituals – a quick shower and and a blast through the closets – off to work – back home late in the evening – tired mumbling and cursing around the reinstated chaos of scattered toys and shouting television (why can’t it ever be quiet in this house?!) – evening rituals – finally, bed – wishing I never had to wake up the next day for the same thing. Ever. As I was saying, this is a relatively good day, for me, a ‘type B’. Type C is just about the same, with the difference that I get depressed and neurotic and get confronted with thoughts of a sort that only go away by means of alcohol or pills (yeah, I’m trying both, by rotation). Then, there is type D, when nothing goes as usual (might be Saturday or Sunday) and I either get so bored and unmotivated, that I spend 16 hours doing nothing and eating everything I can find (I even eat bread crumbs) – I don’t even bother to feel the pain of uselessness -, or I get to feel a desperation so deep that I start dreading the day we decided to move to a flat at the ground floor. Speaking of which, I miss our old flat, and not just because its third floor location. Anyway, as you might have noticed, I skipped right past ‘type A’, my favorite kind of cake. Type A is a day which I will most likely remember: the day I…went to my friend’s birthday party and we danced & had shots until we collapsed like a bunch of sacks of potatoes. The day we… spent the whole day out, walking and playing and eating goodies, and the little one was so happy about spending time with mum & dad. The day I… baked a pie and felt the extreme joy of spoiling my dearest ones for a change, instead of always expecting to be the spoiled one. The day I… went to my first ‘social event’, the day I got my first dress for free, the day the pack from Asos arrived, the day I fit back into my pink skinny jeans the size of a 14 year old girl, and so on and so on. Or it might be the day that nothing spectacular occurred, except for my most spectacular and unaccountable delight – I don’t know, sometimes sunny weather and jazz music do that to me. And new shoes.

Last Sunday I went to my first social event here, in Arad, and it was a typical A-day. Via Carmina is a quarters of houses built at the outskirts of Arad, you might remember it vaguely from this post  – I took a walk there back in August and had a few photos taken, with a bunch of other bloggers. We’ve formed a group now, called ‘Z-listers’, ironically at the other end of the alphabet, as opposed to how I rate my days. We were invited to the 4th anniversary of Via Carmina at one of the malls here (I know it might sound cool to say ‘one of the malls’, which normally implies that there are several malls, when this town is in fact so small and dull and it has two uselessly gigantic malls already and one under construction, as far as I’ve heard), and I really had a great time, observing and taking photos and leaving lipstick marks on champagne glasses, and laughing a bit, I admit, as my blogger friends are always so intimate with their smartphones, that an ‘outsider’ can’t help but amuse herself while spending as much as 2 minutes to text a short-sentenced message on her retarded Samsung phone. After the champagne and ladyfingers episode, we went to the top of the mall, where we had loads of fun trying to light up those lampions (see the photos below). I ‘covered’ the whole thing dilligently (it eventually occurred to me that that’s what cameras are for), so I kept a considerable distance to the hilarious lampion-lighting activity. Finally, they started flying around and disappeared just too quickly beyond the clouds – I assure you, in case you were wondering, that a heavy and grey autumn sky at its fullest charm is by all means the perfect black-hole for heart shaped lampions to be swallowed into. Afterwards, we were supposed to go to the cinema with the people over at Via Carmina, but for me the fun had to stop there, because I had to run, so I missed the movie – rumor has it, I didn’t miss a thing, because the movie in case was ‘Taken 2″.

Bottom line: it makes me glad to see that some people even in this town have initiative towards social involvement and respect to the entire community that they are helping to grow. That’s what I saw back in August, and that’s what I saw on Sunday as well. And furthermore, I’m glad that these people were actually interested to get our bunch of bloggers out there and take a look at the quarter, the houses, the people who live there and what Via Carmina has to offer, so beyond brochures and ads, we got to see the real thing and make an opinion on it – mine is obviously positive. And, as one of my blogger friends so bluntly pointed out – ‘not even’ a blogger can be ‘bought’ with half a glass of champagne and a ticket to the movies, so my support of such projects in a clearly understated town like Arad is full and honest.

Other than that, my personal motivation? ‘Whatever works to drag my day out of the ordinary’.  

 

The most casual and relaxed guy was Mihnea - he carried no burdensome camera or iPhone, and this must be the moment when he asked Adrian that they should leave those phones away and talk like normal people do. ‘Oh we do talk, but on facebook‘, he got in return. And I bet Adelina, Gabi, Daniel and Florin all agreed.

 

This pretty lady was wearing a knockout necklace ( from H&M, as I later discovered)

 

Between these two guys, Gabi and Daniel, one can do nothing else but laugh and drink. And sometimes, that’s just what you need.

 

Florin was really happy that he finally lit up that damn thing. Sadly, 30 seconds later, the flaming wick detached from the lampion and fell on the ground