I've got mail!

Whoooooohooooo! :)

Let me tell you why I was so excited when I received this particular "mail" yesterday.

It was a sort of jampacked Thursday. I had my third shoot for SoulMix in the afternoon and learned that my first ep would air this coming Sunday (ABC 5, 6:30 am, hahaha, ok good luck kung magising ako). I actually have a copy of that episode. But to those who wake up early on Sundays (aside from my lolo and lola?!), try to catch it ;-) You'll see a different side of me... a very serious VJ Lala ;p The songs are chosen by Jesuit brothers and the show is produced by Jesuit Communications so expect wholesome music videos that are "good for the soul". There are 5 VJs and each of us comes out only once a month. Mine's up first so try to watch!

Ok enough of the plugging...

After the shoot, I went home and Nikki asked me if I wanted to play tennis. Actually more of learn tennis all over again. The last time I played tennis in an actual game was... never(!) I attended tennis lessons eleven years ago and just learned the basics along with my three sisters. I never really played as in played. But what the heck, I gave it a shot yesterday and had sisterly bonding with my younger sis who would be going back to med school on Monday. As always, I had a few (ok, a number of) tennis balls flying like baseballs outside the court. But I did get some nice hits. (sabi ni Balen, the instructor, ok pa naman yung palo ko). My service was rusty but it was better than when I was 12! Oh, and Maple, Balen's dog, chewed one of our tennis balls. I always thought yellow looked yummy.

And then I took a quick shower and ate an early dinner. Before that, I texted Paulino and informed him that I could join his zipping class (wooohooo finally!)!!! I left the house earlier than usual because I had to attend my second fitting for my cousin's wedding right before the zips class. Good thing it was within the area of my original destination. As I traversed the EDSA-Makati heavy traffic, I prayed that my gas would be enough to get me to the shop. Lo and behold, my less than 1/4 tank of gas was enough.

While chitchatting with Ate Nana and waiting for my turn to fit the dress, I heard my phone beep. I knew I had a text msg but I didn't check it because I was still listening to my cousin's stories (when you're in the middle of a conversation, sometimes it's nice to focus on the person you're with and just ignore your cellphone :p). Anyway, I wore my dress and "Teacher" (my cousins call him teacher) had to cut the hem while I was wearing it. Cool. Their tagline could be "we'll-make-the-dress-while-you-wear-it-and-wait" or ganun ba talaga gumawa ng dress? haha. Ah basta, na-amaze ako.

And then when I got in the car, I remembered that I had a text message and searched for my phone in my bag. Paulino was the one who texted. Classes were cancelled because of the rain. Ok, see you guys next week then! (And oftentimes it's also good to reply to text messages even if it's a little delayed :p). When I learned that I no longer had zips class, the tired feeling came rushing in. I drove home dreading the heavy traffic but more than that, I was lured by the thought of sleeping in my warm cozy bed...

Ok, now that you've read through my entire post (no cheating!), I'm finally going back to my "mail".

I got home. Suddenly, I had hiccups (no connection or whatsoever, I just wanted to share). And then I saw this brown envelope on the piano. It had an all-caps "Lala Jara" written on it.

I thought it was the photos from Cheree because we had our jazz shoot the other night. But then as I reached for the brown envelope, it had my address on it and labels for 4 CDs. (Cheree need not write my address and I knew we just needed one CD...)

Disc 3 had Bea and Lala JPG.

Ooooooh!!! It was from ALOHALESSA! wheeee! Thank you, Alessa!!! This excited me like a little kid :) (wahh, ang babaw ko talaga,haha)

Here are some of the contents of the "mail".

Photographer: Justin Ventura
Makeup artist: Jasmine Mendiola
Clothes from House of Laurel, Maita Fernandez, and BrownBelly
Accessories by Alessa Libongco
Sittings editor: Patty Laurel
Stylist: Noelle Hilario
Models: Bea and Lala

Note: There were also two other models, Fatima and Monique, but I don't have copies of their photos. :)

Xs: Fun and hard work really go together. The people behind this project know this oh-so-well. Yay, congrats to Alessa, Justin, and Jas for doing fantastic jobs. Clap3x!


And as for my favorite, it will always be the candid photo because...

All the fuss and stuff are included. My shoes were actually too big. Patty was just about to fix my perpetually misplaced strand of hair. Bea looked bored but I know she wasn't. And I was right on the dot, responding to that oh-so-familiar name:
Alessa: "Lala"
Lala: "Huh?"
As Justin just clicked away.
It's perfectly imperfect.