I Had To Laugh At This

1:14am.

Almost asleep.

But I got a text message from May.

Teacher: What do you call a person who keeps on talking even when people are no longer interested?

Student: A teacher!

Teacher: HAHAHA! TANGINA NYO LAHAT! Get one whole sheet of MANILA paper! Long quiz! Back to back!

THUD.

That's me, rolling on the floor laughing. I did punish my students once for coming to class unprepared. I made them write a report on the General Appropriations Act of 2006. (FYI, it's a six inch thick volume.) Pero group paper naman.

My So-Called Life

There was a time, pre-persona-n0n-grata days, when I liked Claire Danes. And only because she was playing Angela Chase, the lead character, in one of my favorite TV shows in college: My So-Called Life. Our ex-friend in college (who shall remain unnamed because she evolved into someone mean and domineering) taped it from cable. We spent two days straight on their den doing a marathon of the show, pausing only for quick meals, microwave popcorn, water and bathroom breaks. Nineteen episodes roughly equates to more or less nineteen hours. (The ex-friend wouldn't lend us the soundtrack, because "may affinity" daw siya dun. Whatev. She must getting a heart attack with the advent of Torrent. How the heck can she keep people from downloading anything that she has an affinity with?)



Last night, when Beng, Mitzie and I were watching the opening of one episode, it was pure nostalgia.

"Oh waw. Everytime I hear that song I remember you and Ate Mitzie," Beng remarked. Yep, we were totally into it.

The plot is shallow of course, it's all about the trials and tribulations of a fifteen year old girl, but we were awed that we could actually relate to her: we had our own issues with our mothers (Mitzie to a higher degree and myself to a lesser degree), we both had a Jordan Catalano in our lives (gorgeous guys who made our week just by acknowledging our existence by raising an eyebrow in our direction), and of course, her fashion sense. We went through a phase when we were both so consumed by a desire to dye our respective hair "crimson glow." (To the point that we were obsessing about the henna products in Body Shop that assured us of a subtle auburn look. Mitzie did it, I just couldn't. To this day, my hair is virgin from all sorts of treatment. But I digress.)

And the clothes! The show came at a time when grunge was so in. I was so enamored with her outfits, that I've taken to wearing them to school, whenever I could. It's hard to wear tartan skirts or long-sleeved, mini-dresses when I have to ride a jeepney to school. (Di pa uso ang FX.)

We were part of the group that hemmed and hawed when the show got canceled after only one season. I kid you not.

I think in a way, we're still living our so-called lives. There are always issues but we've learned to cope with them sans the teenage angst ("angst is so 90s" said Pepe Diokno) and emo-shit baggage we had before. We've realized it's easier to live happier lives and to have cheerful days when we've matured because we're no longer asserting to be treated like adults. For a lot of us, there is still that cute boy whom we like but gives us thrills down our spine just by smiling at us, there are still issues with our parents (who will forever treat us like children), and there are things that we are unable to do because it's not yet the right time yet we are impatient to get it done. But it's okay. We've grown. We're no longer fifteen. We've reached an age where we've gotten our identities; where we know who we are and what we are capable of doing; of knowing who our real friends are and who are there just to take advantage of you; and knowing what truly makes us happy. Instead of being told of what should make us happy.

(Hmmm. Is it just me or is this entry just bordering on being emo? Forgive, forgive. It's what going back in time can do to me.)

Leslie's Birthday and Then Some

Today a lot of things happened.



First of all, Heath Ledger passed away.



Which was one of the many topics of conversation at Leslie's birthday lunch. For the past two years, we've celebrated Leslie's birthday with a luncheon. The first lunch we had was way back in 2006, when Gang and I canoodled Leslie to miss work that day, and for Beng to take an early lunch. We went to Chateau Verde, talked, laughed and ate til our bellies felt like bursting. We then pushed our BI abilities to make Beng completely ditch work. She did, and we went to Eastwood to get foot spas. Leslie had to go home to have dinner with her family. Too bad, she missed the premier night of Big Time. That premiere was where I first met Nards. Very memorable night, indeed. Gang was introducing me to all sorts of guys that night, hoping someone would spark my interest (Jaimie Wilson included). Heehee. Nobody expected anything.



Anyway, this year, the group has expanded to include Cat, Ceenky, Jay, Gab, Mike & Pj. (Although the last two, literally, were last. Everyone's left by the time they arrived in Eastwood.) It was fun, I miss lunching with the girls, and friends of the girls. :P



When I got back home in the afternoon, I dragged Nards off to UP to play with the new lens: 135mm 2.8. It's a telephoto prime lens that takes fantastic close-ups. We made a dry run of the post nuptial photoshoot of Jun & Gail. Mitzie joined us eventually, who helped us test out light settings, and such. We realized how fast we had to work. Just to take advantage of the good light before dusk.



These two photos were taken a few minutes apart. A world of difference light settings can make.









Great close up photos. In the first, Nards was nearly 25ft away; in the second, he was 12ft away; and in the last, Nards was perched on top of the monkey bars. I like how this lens makes a very fine blur, that gives the photos a 3D quality. It gives the subject subtle emphasis that is very pleasing to the eye.





Tired from running around. This photo was taken with a 20 sec exposure, thus the nice light streaks at the background made by passing vehicles with their headlights. Mitzie was holding the flash here.



It was a very good day. :)

Rocker Chick

Click on photo to see full album.

As I said in my other blog, who says Moms can't be cool? Mic was very modelesque and photogenic. She made posing with a seven-month belly seem like a breeze. We certainly had fun on this shoot. :)



Photo by Nards

Mallrat

That would be my sister not me.



Today, I took a break from working. I needed to get out of the house, so when my sister phoned to say that she was going to Trinoma to buy new tops for work, I eagerly agreed to meet with her. For our trip to the mall, I packed the PSP, three volumes of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and of course the camera. With those things in the bag, I felt adequately prepared to face an afternoon in the mall.



I met with Nards and we went there early because we haven't had lunch. We arrived there a bit before two pm. There were three reasons why it took us nearly twenty minutes upon arrival on deciding where to eat: 1) we got lost -- aymsorreee, first of all, Trinoma is gargantuan and complicated that we keep making wrong turns (think of the labyrinth in The Labyrinth); 2) I had to take a photo of these two pairs of lovers na "kumo-couple in the park" in the midst of the mall (Nards had to pretend-pose so that I can covertly photograph them; and 3) we kept getting hustled by aggressive servers from restaurants who chased us with menus.

Nards' Pretend-Pose

Luneta Sa Loob ng Trinoma

We went to Mann Hann. There was a moment that we were torn between Mangan and Marina (all M's) but when the servers shoved menus under our noses, we made a beeline for Mann Hann. Ordering was a snap: one order of Sharksfin (it's not environmentally friendly!! why the heck did we order it?) dumplings, Lechon Macau and Yangchow rice. We fooled around with the camera while waiting for the food to prevent us from chewing our fingernails (we were that hungry!).

This photo is making me thirsty.

Sharksfin Dumpling (those poor sharks!)

Lechon Macau (nabawasan na yan)

Yangchow rice

Tuwang tuwa sa kinakain.

Fast forward to an hour later. We ensconced ourselves on a pair of red armchairs in Coffee Bean and read and read and read. I have forgotten what it was like to hang out there. Before, I usually went there to get some work done whenever the college became too noisy and whenever working at home became too much that I was plagued with cabin fever.

That smile literally turns my knees to jelly. (nuks!)

Beng finally arrived. Of course, we had to do this:

Our photo :D

Do I know how to make her laugh or what?

I did take decent photos of her :P

At the end of the day, it wasn't bad at all. I went home with a new pair of jeans, a camera half filled with photos, and stomach full from Chinese food.



Trinoma is second to Eastwood on my list of the least evil malls in the metropolis. Trust me, this is a stretch, considering I truly hate malls.

Working on a Weekend

My whole weekend revolved on this. Neat no? I'm so proud of myself, being able to work with only one notebook and the rest is in my laptop. It used to be I had literally thousands of pieces of paper littered all over my desk, where I scribble ideas whenever I get them. It used to be too that practically all surfaces were covered with post-its. Edge of my laptop screen included.

I'm so happy for One Note.

Saturday night out was a marathon of Ed and beer and chips.

Pringles shrank!! Gasp!!

The reduced the price by half, sure. But they also reduced the size.

I took a break by working the scarf I'm knitting for Mitzie. She likes the color, and she says she needs it because the weather is unbearable cold, where she is. I've used 9 balls of yarn, and I have two and a half to go. The remaining half will be used for tassels.

I gave myself a deadline to have a skeleton site up and running just to get a jump start on things. And this video is just a teaser I put together (in great haste, so please forgive the imperfections), to have a bit of content on the site.




What do you think?

I'm going to sleep now.

Busy Bee

It has been a busy week after all.

I didn't realize how much was needed to be done until I felt well and started functioning normally again. There's the website that needs to be put up (we've acquired the domain - yey!), the photos collated for the portfolio, properly classified and watermarked (we enjoy sitting up at our work table going through the hundreds of photos and choosing which ones will be included), the creative fees and packages finalized, the sample of the frames selected and canvassed, and the scheduling of additional shoots (maternity shots of Mic, post-nup photos of Jun and Gail, and newborn sessions with Santino).

This does not include yet the cookie website, or the other business thing that Nards and I are conceptualizing. Next week, we need to go (or in my case, brave) divisoria. Phanie gave us the directions on where to get the materials we need. I also hope that we have time to check out some vendors there that focus on weddings. (Yes, there is still the wedding to plan. I think 2008 may be a very busy year, indeed.)

I've discovered that I thoroughly enjoyed taking photos of expectant mothers, infants and children. It's the same heady feeling I get when I get in front of the classroom, see all the fresh intelligent faces listening on whatever learnings I can impart. What can I say? It's a natural high.

Alejar Family Photoshoot

Click on photo to see full album.

This is one of the photos that we took last Wednesday at a photoshoot with Nikka's family. It was so much fun!! (Especially when we were the ones being chased by Therese, the rambunctious toddler, as opposed to us doing the chasing. She's the most adorable little girl who hams it up in front of the camera and likes to press her face against the lens.)

Thanks so much Nikka for letting us photograph your beautiful family. :)


Photo by Nards
9 January 2008

Photoshoot with Therese and Angela

Therese and Angela

Click on photo to view full album. Or just view slideshow below.


Meet Therese and Angela. Jun and Anac's girls. I fell in love with them the minute I clapped my eyes on them. One minute they're shy, and the next they are eagerly showing you their toys and labrador puppy. It was a fun shoot, with both girls playing and laughing with each other.

These two girls show what sisterhood should be all about.





Photos by Aggie, 6 January 2008

Uneventful Start of the Week

I haven't quite recovered from my colds last New Year's. I thought I did around Friday last week. But when I went to Gail's wedding on Saturday, garbed in a backless number, the cold AC just nursed my virus back to it's full strength. And it came back with a vengeance right after I finished the photo shoot with Anac's girls Sunday morning.

So the entire Monday and Tuesday this week, was once again spent sleeping and getting high on Phenylpropanolamine HCl and Paracetamol (i.e. Decolgen Forte) chased by gallons of liquids. I missed going with Nards to buy the new lens (wheee!! will be using it later!) or the centennial celebration last night in UP. That's ok. I figured there's a reason I missed it. I'm long passed lamenting on the impeccable timing of my sickly disposition with events I want to attend.

I'm feeling much much better today. So much so, that I can't wait to get out of the house. Been suffering from cabin fever. I've listed the things I need to get done today including bank errands, photo shoot with Nikka, grocery and maybe even dining out for a change. I just have to keep warm and remember to drink vitamins before I step out the door.

Jun & Gail Ties The Knot

Yesterday, Nards and I took the, more or less, 80+ kilometer drive from QC to Ayala, Alabang to attend Jun and Gail's wedding. Theirs is a love so pure and deep. I know that Gail has been planning her dream wedding even before she met Jun. I also know the extent to which she has gone to take care of all the details, and the time and effort she has put in to make it joyous and memorable. Even if Nards and I didn't know anybody at that wedding (that had more than 300 guests) except the bride and groom, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

It was perfect.

St. James the Great Church
Ayala, Alabang

The Beautiful Bride
Glowing with Happiness

Bridal March

The Cake
Yes, her motif was apple green and pink

Cake Topper
(replicas of June and Gail complete with Jun's favorite bowling bowl and Gail's favorite hand in poker)

Gail made every one of her guests special by writing personal notes on their place cards.
She's just too sweet for words.

Having fun!
Ha. ha. Was the only guest wearing red. Also reason for not being able to take photos. Was afraid to trip and fall on my floor length skirt; and that I'd make one crimson spectacle in the midst of the celebration.

Photos by Nards
5 January 2008

Happy New Year

It didn't bode well that on the 31st of December, my throat was itchy, my nose painful and my body tingling with the onslaught of flu and tonsillitis.

It was a very busy week for me from the 26th all the way to the last day of 2007. The day after Christmas, I went out to buy ingredients for cookie orders in January and to buy or have a formal dress made for Gail's wedding. Of course, my parents wanted to come along. (This made me a nervous wreck because they can be totally disagreeable in the mall i.e. they want to stay and shop whereas I want to get my errand done in record time and high tail it out of there.) It was a full day, and despite the two of them on their respective iPods (which meant they were on high volume the whole day), I was able to get what I needed. The following day was the trip to Tagaytay. The 28th was spent catching up on email, processing photos, blogging and vegging out in front of the TV. The last Saturday of the year was spent with Birthday Boy, although I went to our blasted family reunion in the evening. Sunday before the new year, Beng and I went to G Spa for the works. We got back to my parents' house at nearly midnight.

And then on the 31st, I got sick.

So the first day of the year was spent in bed, stoned on antibiotics and cold medicine and wrapped up in flannel boxers, my brothers bulky sweatshirt and my sister's thick blanket.

Here's to a rocking 2008.