So there’s that…

Trait

You know there are times in life when you just live day by day and you feel like everything is smooth, maybe too smooth, even boring at times. But that’s okay, it’s just fine because then the moment comes and you come back to reality thanks certain people you meet and make everything more interesting around them, including your life.

So next time I’m thinking about complaining of a boring life, I’ll make sure to remember the story below.

It goes like this: a few days ago I end up at the hospital for a certain issue and after five hours of waiting, the doctor arrives. He apologizes for making me wait and welcomes me into his office. There, the consultation begins and he tells me he would like to spend more time talking to me so he starts to ask lots of questions. Some of them I thought were pretty irrelevant for the given situation but he stops me and asks for my patience whenever he would see me frown. He assures me that eventually I will see the point of all this. But somehow, when I left the doctor’s office I was still confused.
Aaaand also so amused that I burst into laughing with tears. After just one hour in his office, this doctor made me leave the hospital smiling and then laughing really hard when by myself in the car. And then again, the same whenever I would talk to a friend and told them about the happening.

So, this doctor – that I would mention no names or specialty about – had a big cabinet with lots of shelves each one of them filled with holy images. And the same went for the windowsill. Normally, one of the firsts questions was about me being a religious person or not. Then, we moved on to talking about tattoos:

– So now you’ve already got ink on you… But at least don’t have any more tattoos done. You’re gonna see that when you find your man, the perfect one to share a life with, his kiss will feel different on the inked parts of your body.

Okaaay, mhm, I wasn’t gonna get into a debate about that. But then he went on and started talking about psychological stuff. I tried to tell him I am just fine, not crazy, I’ve got a therapist to turn to in case of anything. Somehow, the doctor was trying to tell me that I’m fine and I’m just stressed. I admitted I experienced a bit of that in the past year but that I am fine now and over it.

– I am going to be honest with you. I can see you need a man to complete you. You need him as a partner, to be a support to you, a lover, a protector, a father…

– All due respect, I think I’ve got that covered.

– Look, if you want I can present you one of my friends. He’s a good guy and would be perfect for you. He’s in his 40s, divorced, has got a high school kid and is a mayor somewhere (can’t remember where).

I spent my last minutes trying to convince him I was fine and there was no need for such efforts and I managed to put an end to the conversation. So the consultation has ended and I had no diagnosis. Oh yeah, at the end he asked me if I’ve got any holy stuff in my house (images, pictures, icons, statues) and I assured him I was fine on that also.

The medical letter he gave me after the consultation said that my diagnosis was ‘stress’. STRESS!!! That’s it, all I’ve got is stress. Thank God, huh!

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Happy bday, Mickey!

I hope that everyone here knows who Mickey Mouse is! If so, your childhood was awesome! 😀

 

anamariapopa.com mickey mouse bday ana maria popa blog post

 

So, Mickey is the official mascot of Disney. He is a an animal cartoon and was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. He is part of a gang, along with his girlfriend – Minnie Mouse, his dog – Pluto and his friends – Goofy and Donald Duck with girlfriend, Daisy.

 

anamariapopa.com blog post mickey mouse disney character and friends pluto goofy daisy donald minnie

 

Mickey’s body is made out of circles, to make the character easy to animate. And that is a reason why Mickey is easy for the audience to recognize, his ears being an unofficial trademark. There is even a symbol used to represent Mickey – Mickey Mouse

The original voice of Mickey is Walt Disney himself, the co-creator of Mickey and founder of the Walt Disney Company! It turns out even more cute – starting from 1977, the voice of Mickey Mouse was Wayne Allwine, who was married in real life to Russi Taylor, the voice of Mickey girlfriend, Minnie Mouse!

Mickey Mouse is so famous that he’s received ten nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and in November 1978, in honor of his 50th anniversary, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Golden Retrievers – Your reason to smile today

Now, did you know that I love dogs?

I don’t make any difference if it’s a puppy or an adult dog, if it’s stray or purebreed or if it’s a Golden Retriever or a German Shepherd (it’s just a coincidence that they are both fav of mine).

Today I came across this video here and it just made my day, so I wanted to share it with you!

 

They are so silly and cute and adorable and sweet and funny with their noses like that, I just can’t!

That reminds me of a friend’s dog, also a Golden Retriever. Man, that dog is awesome! His name is Koss and he should be about 8yo now, but he’s so playful as a puppy! Just look at him:

 

This is Koss getting in a fight with a sprinkler in the park...

This is Koss getting in a fight with a sprinkler in the park…

 

And this is me, trying to bite his head...

And this is me, trying to bite his head…

 

Here he tries to look dandy...

Here he tries to look dandy…

 

His reaction when it comes to receiving cuddles...

His reaction when it comes to receiving cuddles…

 

He even takes care of his teeth by visiting the dentist!

He even takes care of his teeth by visiting the dentist!

 

Yeah, he is really something else 🙂 I love him, I love Golden Retrievers, I love dogs. Look in their eyes and you’ll see the answer why.

 

www.anamariapopa.com blog post golden retriever silly portret funny fun park

25 years of Pretty Woman

So this is what a 25 years difference does to a cast. They look pretty good, huh?

pretty woman 25 years celebration julia roberts richard gere amp blog anamariapopa.com ana maria popa

 

I was fascinated with Julia Roberts when I was little, people told me I looked like her and I always thought she was pretty, so that was a huge compliment to me 🙂

Funny thing – I read so many funny things about this movie today, that I had to share of them that made me giggle.

 

It's not Julia Robert's body on the poster. Her head was cut and photoshoped on the body of the famous body double, Shelley Michelle.

1. It’s not Julia Robert’s body on the poster. Her head was cut and photoshoped on the body of the famous body double, Shelley Michelle.

2. The original title of the movie was ‘3000$’, as in the money she was supposed to receive after the night spent with the business man.

3. On the poster, Richard Gere’s hair looks dark, but in the movie he’s got grey hair.

4. Julia Roberts’s character, Vivian, was supposed to be a drug addict, modest and ill-educated girl. But in the end, they went the other way.

5. Initially, Vivian was supposed to be played by Molly Ringwald.

5. Initially, Vivian was supposed to be played by Molly Ringwald.

6. Al Pacino was offered the role of Edward and he turned it down.

7. Julia Roberts was treated like a princess on the set – the director, Gerry Marshall himself, gave her a massage and tickled her for two scenes where Roberts was so tense that a vein popped on her forehead, and the other one when she was supposed to laugh.

8. The scene with the necklace was an improvisation of Richard Gere when he closed the jelewery box on Julia Roberts's hand.

8. The scene with the necklace was an improvisation of Richard Gere when he closed the jelewery box on Julia Roberts’s hand.

9. The necklace on the same scene was custom-made for the movie and worth a quarter million dollars.

10. The car in the movie was a Lotus, because Ferrari and Porsche denied to have their cars in this movie. And that was because neither of them wanted to be associated with prostitution.

10. The car in the movie was a Lotus, because Ferrari and Porsche denied to have their cars in this movie. And that was because neither of them wanted to be associated with prostitution.

11. Richard Gere stated back in 2012 that ‘Pretty Woman’ was his least fav movie… Oh 🙁

12. The movie is the 4th highest romantic comedy in American history, with approx. 180 million $. Only ‘Hitch’, ‘What Women Want’ and ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ top that.

13. Julia Roberts was nominated for Oscar – Best Actress and it was the only Academy Award nomination this movie received.

 

I’ll leave you with the oh-so-famous soundtrack, where the movie also got its title from – Roy Orbinson-Pretty Woman 🙂

Happy Nutella Day!

We have a day for everything these days… We celebrate even the weirdest things, from toothaches and having ice cream for breakfast to losing pennies and working naked (wtf?!)… And these are only a few of the celebration days we’ve got this month…

So, let’s take a day to celebrate Nutella too, in 2015 it’s got its 9th anniversary! 🙂

The World Nutella Day was created in 2007 by an American blogger and it has its own website – www.nutelladay.com, its own Facebook page – here, its own Twitter account – here and also its own hashtag on Twitter – #WorldNutellaDay.

Well, history tells us that it was in 1940s that Nutella got on the market and despite the many imitations, couldn’t be replaced since. Apparently, at some level, we can thank Napoleon for the creation of Nutella, when he tried to freeze out British commerce and left the chocolatiers in big trouble. These started adding chopped hazelnuts to the chocolate in order to stretch the supply as much as possible. The result? A pasta named Gianduja.

In the WWII, the Italian pastry makes, Pietro Ferrero once again created Pasta Gianduja, that was originally a solid block that could be sliced and served on bread. The Ferrero Rocher company is the one that owns Nutella now, of course.

Pasta Gianduja afterwards became known as Supercrema when it went from the solid block of chocolate and into a spreadable chocolate cream. It was renamed Nutella in 1964 when the product was first introduced to the UK. So the name turned 50 years old last year, wow!

After a bit of history, I’ll leave you with the most funny/weird things to know about Nutella:

1. You could circle the world 1.4 times with the amount of Nutella produced in one year.

2. You could cover the Great Wall of China eight times with the number of jars of Nutella sold in a year.

3. One jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds throughout the world. That is amazing, considering the fact that across the world, a baby is born every 8 seconds.

4. The owners of Ferrero currently use 25% of the world’s hazelnuts.

5. You can’t name your baby Nutella, in France… Ooops.

6. There are Nutella restaurants in New York, Frankfurt and Bologna.

7. Italian shops used to offer a smear of Nutella for free to kids, if they came in with a slice of bread.

 

Want more? Learn how to say ‘Happy Nutella Day’ in languages all over the world – here!

 

P.S.: Even my bear loves it!

P.S.: Even my bear loves it!

2014’s Lessons

My Facebook newsfeed is full of these ‘X’s year’ and ‘It’s been a great year! Thanks for being a part of it!’… Really now, you’re only fooling yourselves. Facebook is only showing you the most popular things throughout this year. And since you only post the good stuff, how can you honestly be proud of what Facebook mixes from your profile?

Still, this made me think of my year. So I took it as a personal challenge to look back at my 2014. I met so many people that taught me things and I’m really grateful for that. I can think of any month of this year and recall a person that touched me, one way or another.

 

2014 my year anamariapopa.com blog post lessons learned beautiful people ana maria popa

 

I remember that my January started with the Maroon 5 concert in London (ah-mah-zing). Once I returned, I had to concentrate on my bachelor’s degree so I closed my Facebook (it was a big deal to me!). So I had more time for Instagram and Foursquare, lol.

At the beginning of February I fell in love, the kind of feeling that makes or breaks you, that turns and changes you. It wasn’t the first time I fell in love, but this… this really was something. I was so fascinated by him that I used to look at him and think – this is the type of man I want for a husband. Kind of silly, I know, but he was magic to me. He had me wake up in the morning while having a smile on my face. It was that kind of thing when you lie awake just to see him sleep. But it ended, just like that.

My March was divided between getting back on my feet and my trip to Vienna and seeing my friends and doing my job. So, I got on a plane to Vienna for a few days and had a wonderful time with Couchsurfing friends, Tommi and Chris. There’s where I got my Green Hat from Chris, on Saint Patrick’s Day.

photo 5

 

In April I met someone whom I really loved and not necessarily in a romantic way. It was just the way that we were so alike that I felt him like a part of me, even if we had just met. We would even finish each other’s sentences or know what we were about to say before we even say it. It was so real that I would call him ‘my person’ (like in Grey’s Anatomy).

My May was full of activities with ‘my person’, until something wasn’t the way it used to be. We were just so alike, that we were bothered by the same things and we would react in the same way. It was kind of freaky…

So in June we distanced ourselves. June was also my month when I visited Belgium. Whole story, here. Aaand, that is also the month when I had a car accident… It was my fault and luckily there were no victims, but my car got hurt kind of bad (it hurt me also because I love my car) so I had to take it into a car service and leave it there. It was bad to see it like that… She’s my little dragon.

 

amp blog anamariapopa.com ana maria popa blog post 2014 lessons car accident nissan almera silver

 

July was the month I was car-less, and I had to suffer because of that. No more trips to the gym, no more going out. I’m kind of a princess in that way, it is very possible that I was born in a car. Or conceived there, don’t know. All I knew this month was to work and go home and work again.

Well, in August things started to get more interesting. I met a lot of beautiful people, and I mean A LOT! I loved them, all of them, for everything they were. And, at some point, a crazy dude broke my knee :)) But that also was fun, in its own weird way, it hurt like hell!

So, August and September were my off-months from work, since I had to only stay in bed… And afterwards I had to move around in a crutch to go to the hospital. September was also the month when I started this blog. It was a really big deal to me and it’s this year’s biggest accomplishment. It had been on my mind for some time but only then I had the time to start it. Also, this was the time I got really close to a friend I now appreciate and respect immensely.

October was the month that I had to catch up with my work and the changes that have been made in the last months that I spent in bed. I don’t even know how this month passed, really. I was super busy, as a bee. But I still had time for a concert and also to re-do my wrist tattoo and get a weekend off to go to the seaside!

 

anamariapopa.com blog post ana maria popa seaside romania constanta marea neagra black sea smile happy

 

Then came November and had my head in my work also, but I also started seeing things from other perspectives. I started having dreams and getting interested on how to make them real. More about that, next year!

Oh well, and December… December is my month, since I’m born on the 16th. And still, I am spoiled enough to have not only a birthday, but a whole birth-week! So, I took advantage of it and celebrated it every day. And since my plan wasn’t enough, my friends surprised me and made me start my celebration even earlier, 2 days earlier. So they made me Princess and got me a diploma that says that I’m the happiest girl alive!

 

anamariapopa.com blog post surpriza birthday friends cake cutting orange bubblegum picture tiara princess diploma

 

Oh, they also got me a Princess birthday cake made out of Bubblegum and Marshmallows Ice-Cream!

 

anamariapopa.com blog post surpriza birthday friends cake cutting orange bubblegum picture tiara princess diploma marzipan

 

My end of December brought me a biiiiiiig disappointment, but I guess I had to leave this one here, in 2014, so I can start fresh in 2015. I thought I had met someone really special, only to find out that I have been lied to. It was my first time when someone actually admitted to my face that he’d been lying to me. It was a shock at first, and then I was just happy it was over and that I no longer had a person like that in my life. The sad part? I thought he was something else. I think my douche-radar is broken or something, I usually sense this, honestly…

But overall, I am really happy. I’ve loved, I’ve lost, I’ve fallen in love and have been disappointed, I met new people – some good and some not so nice, I learned new things and how to deal with certain situations. Oh, and I saw Adam Levine live in concert! I got this blog that started as a place to gather my thoughts and stories of life, but I receive messages from my readers that are inspired by what they find here… It’s really impressive, so this one is about you, my readers. I’m planning something nice for 2015, promise! We can keep in touch on Facebook also, here.

At the end of 2014, all I can say is that I am really curios about 2015 🙂 Because I’m sucker for endings and beginnings.

Smile and Wave

What do you do when someone you meet again after 3 years tells you they see you as too independent to ever have a serious relationship? And what do you do when that someone is an ex?

Well, you just smile. And wave. Actually no, I just smiled.

It was kinda shocking and I admit I was somewhere between anger and frustration, wanting to ask the question ‘why’ and leaving that instant. But instead, I just smiled and thought about what he said.

After all, I did try a relationship with him and even though that ended 3 years ago, I was very into him at that point. But still, somehow he had this impression of me that I am not the relationship type. So I ask you now, is there such a thing?

Me thinks not. I think we all have that one person that’s just perfect for us and understands our way of being. The one person that fits us so well, no matter the type of freak or f*cked up we are (because we all are fucked up in our own way, don’t try to deny it). Well, that person will be there and the match between us is so perfect that seems unbreakable.

On the other hand, to a person that doesn’t fit you, one that doesn’t understand you, you will never be good enough no matter what you do.

Take this, for example: a friend of the opposite sex calls you in the middle of the night. If you’re a girl, you get ringed by a guy-friend and if you’re a guy, that’s a girl-friend you got ringed by. They need you help so you rush to get dressed. Now, if you have that person that understands you and fits you and knows your ways, they know they can trust you and that you really want to help the friend that called, nothing else. Hell, they even get dressed and come with you to offer a hand. On the other hand, a person that’s not your type of person gets upset with the fact that the call woke them up, may even get jealous that you help a friend no matter the circumstance. And they judge you without even asking for details.

Okay, it may not have been the best example, or maybe it was. Don’t know. I’ve had both kinds of relationship and even though I tried to make both of them work – because you’re not in a relationship just for a Facebook status, you actually have to mean it and work for it – the one that I’m most fond of is the one when I really felt appreciated.

Now, there are 3 things that need clarification and it’s imperative that you know yourself from head to toe, in order to achieve these conclusions. And you only do it for yourself, really. So there’s no point in oversell it. First, you need to know what you don’t accept in a relationship and from a partner. Because that’s the only way you can be sure of what’s wrong and what’s right for you. You don’t have time to waste, even in your love life, trust me. Depending on the age you are, all the experimenting was nice before you reach 25, but after that it’s just a waste of time. You need to able to select the qualities you admire in a partner and also the things that are a total turn-off. There is no ‘I just have to see how this one ends, maybe it works’ allowed.

Okay, second – you need to know if you can really have a relationship. You can’t be in a relationship and act single. Because then, what’s the point?! Ask yourself if you can really be monogamous, if you can trust another person enough to form a team, if you are open and flexible enough to see your partner’s point of view and respect it, even though you may not always be in agreement.

And third – love your single life. Yes, love it and enjoy every minute of it. Take your ‘me-time’ (personally, I have a day per week), enjoy moments with your friends, take time for your hobbies. You are the only one that should complete yourself and that’s not a partner’s job. If you don’t love and respect yourself or better yet, if you can’t stand yourself in those alone moments, who will?

Too many people fall asleep next to each other and still feel alone. And what makes that even sadder? When they fall asleep next to the wrong person but think of the right one. The last part isn’t mine, I have no credit for it – it’s a friend’s thought shared with me, so I had to tell it to you too. He said all this is really sad. I told him it’s just a warning you should educate yourself not to get in a situation like this.

Me? I don’t agree with my ex’s opinion of me. I think that when it comes to us two, I am the one that knows me better and not him. I know how to be single, I know how to have a relationship when it’s the case. Yes, I do get lonely sometimes and feel the need for activities couples do, but I also know what I can and cannot accept in someone who wants to be my partner. So yes, I guess I’ll be single until I find that special someone 🙂

 

anamariapopa.com blog post There are too many people who fall asleep next to each other and still feel alone. And what makes them even sadder When they fall asleep next to the wrong person but think of the right one loneliness

 

P.S.: If you enjoyed this, you might also like to read: How to – Relationships, How to Play and How Long is Forever?.