Day 228

Today was absolutely amazing, but considering it's 11:30, and I was up at 6:30, much like yesterday, I'm going to try to condense tonight's blog as much as I can.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, 6:30 came quick. When my alarm went off, I debated waiting a bit...lounging before crawling out of bed. But when my eyes began to close again, I decided that was not a good idea. I had a big day ahead of me, and although I was a little nervous...I was EXCITED!

I grabbed my bags, and feeling absolutely disgusting, I looked at myself in the mirror, hair and makeup unable to be touched, and I went down to put a pear and an apple in a container for the drive to Toni's. I went to jump in the car, but realized it was spitting down, so I rushed back in for a coat, and then out again. I made myself fairly invisible, as I didn't really want to tell anyone where I was going, and the only person around was Tim anyways.

I began to drive off, and took a bite into my apple. Ew...that doesn't taste too great I thought. I took another bite. Oh that's disgusting! Was the next thought that entered my mind. It was mushy, and brown. No way was I finishing that. I made it to Toni's right on time, pear finished, apple left to rot in the container, and I sent her a text letting her know I had arrived. I didn't want to ring the doorbell in case her Mom hadn't woken up yet. She soon came out, and the two of us walked to the train station.

Once we got our tickets, we jumped on the train, and began our journey. We took it to Romford, where we had to switch to another train, then at Newbury Park I think? We had to switch to a bus...but not just any bus...A DOUBLE DECKER BUS! I was pretty excited, I'm not gonna lie. Once on there, we were taken to the tube station, and from there, we rode to Liverpool Street. We were there in plenty of time (Yes I realize I haven't told you what we were doing yet...but that's coming, don't you worry). Because we were early, we decided to grab a Starbucks for the walk. Then, feeling incredibly insecure, as I had the whole way into London, the two of us walked downtown, no makeup, and hair completely undone, to...A STUDIO!

You see, long story short, a few weeks, maybe a couple of months back, Toni and I were approached on the street while shopping. A lady was looking for 10 girls to go into her studio and do a photo shoot, and thinking we had "the right look", she wanted to know if we'd be interested. Unsure about whether we were really lucky enough to have this happen to us, we didn't tell anyone about it, leading up to the day we booked the appointment, and the actual day of. Cut to the chase, here we were, standing at the door, me excited as anything, and Toni, excited, but shaking from nervousness, ready for our appointment. 2 other girls, who looked as lost as we did (looking for the right door), came towards us and we began talking. They were 2 more that had been approached. After a few minutes of waiting around, one of the girls figured out that the door to go in, was one you could just push, and was already unlocked - although the sign said to buzz -

In we walk, to this amazing studio. Clean, white walls, black back drops, cool couches, a front desk, an office, make up and hair artists, photographers...OH MY GOD, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING! The lady who had approached Toni and I, came over to greet us and told us to sit down and relax. She then brought us a form to fill out, and asked if we wanted anything to drink etc. When we had finished up with all that, Toni and I were brought over to meet Tony, the wardrobe guy. He brought us into the change rooms, did our measurements, and picked our outfits. When we came out, Toni went to make up, and I went to hair. The hair girl was sooooo nice! She took mine out of the pony tail, and told me how much she loved it. She said she was jealous, and that for the first look, if I was ok with it, she didn't want to change it too much. I told her it was all up to her. She straightened a few pieces on top, and then sent me to make up. First, I sat and watched Toni get hers done. I was in astonishment. It was looking so amazing. Then, it was my turn, and Toni went to hair. Before I was done in make up, Toni was already in front of the camera and looking gorgeous. Soon enough, I was off with my first photographer of the day. His name was Duncan, and he was AMAZING! He was so nice, and made me feel so comfortable. I was able to laugh with him, and I was doing all sorts of different things, from standing against the wall, posing outside, to rolling around on the floor. It was awesome!

2nd change, 2nd photographer. This guy, was a little more...straight to the point, know what you're doing. He didn't make you feel quite as comfortable, but I was later told where he was from, and it kind of made sense to me. I think it was more of a cultural thing, than anything else. He looked at me, and told me to move as he took pics. That is something I'd never done before, but it was kinda cool that he wanted to see what I would do. I was enjoying myself. He then went and grabbed a hat, and had me doing different poses with that.

3rd change, different make up - a conversation with the 2nd make up artist about careers etc, different hair, different photographer. This time, it was Pat. Another guy who made you feel comfortable, and had you laughing, but also took serious shots. He was super nice. I was having such a great time!

For the 4th change, I was with Pat again, and I was fine with that. Tony put a huge floppy hat on my head, and I hadn't seen it in the mirror before I started posing, but the make up artist told me it looked very JLo. I was pretty happy with the way some of those ones turned out. At the end of those shots, Toni was able to jump in with me, and the two of us had some pics taken together. It was so much fun. Pat had me crouch down so that I didn't look so much taller than Toni. She's 5'3 to begin with, and I was in heels (As if I needed to be any taller). For one pic, I was crouched down, and he had her put her elbow on me, as if I was her arm rest. We couldn't stop laughing. It was the end of the photo shoot, and we couldn't stop smiling. We wanted to do it all over again, and we had yet to see the pictures!

We sat down to wait until they were uploaded, and were then taken into the office with Helen to go over our pictures. We got one free one, and it was completely up to us if we wanted to buy any more. Well, with 2 girls who have...pretty low self esteem, we were astonished. We could not believe that it was us up on the screen. Toni's pictures were shown first, and she was nearly in tears. It was really nice to see. You could tell that in that exact moment, even if just for the next half hour, she truly felt beautiful. It was great. When my turn came, and certain pics came up, I knew exactly how she had felt. My throat started to get all choked up, and my eyes started to well. I actually felt like someone had captured the person I am inside. It's hard to explain, but I was so overwhelmed. We decided we'd each get a CD with all of our pictures on them, paid, thanked everyone, I grabbed the make up artists business card (cuz she had asked me to earlier...don't worry, she's not taking Darcy's place), and we left, very happily.

We walked with one of the guys who had been running around for the main lady, to the tube station, separated from him, grabbed another Starbucks, and hopped on the Tube back to Newbury Park. When we arrived there, we walked up to the Bus for Romford, but the driver told us not to get on that one, as going to Ingateston or something like that...would get us where we wanted to be quicker. We did as he said, and boy was he wrong. The bus took us to that train station, and we then asked the information desk when the next train to Witham was. She told us we had about 20 minutes to wait, and the train wasn't stopping there. Instead, we'd have to get off at Chelmsford, and switch to a Witham train there. Damn train works on a holiday weekend! Anyway, it then began pouring down with rain, so everyone came into the info building. Eventually the train pulled up, and we piled in. We got into a conversation with 2 guys sitting next to us, as they were going to Witham as well, and had not been told that they would have to switch. A number of us were in the same situation and began laughing about it, and over exaggerating about how long it would take to get home. The young guy and maybe his dad, or boss I guess...were pretty funny. When we got to Chelmsford and got off, we stopped to check the screen to see what time our train came, but it didn't show it. The older man of the two, had made a comment earlier about how we'd have to ask some old ugly guy the question, and just as he gave us our answer, a lightning bolt would strike behind him. We had all laughed about it, not knowing that it was pretty close to what was about to happen. This rather large gentleman who clearly worked there, was walking by us, so the older man asked him about the train. The man completely ignored us (or so we thought), and continued down the platform. We couldn't believe how rude he was, and couldn't stop laughing. All of a sudden, he blew his whistle and let the train know it could move, then, out of nowhere, he turned to us and gave us a time. Confused, we all turned towards him, and the older man asked him to repeat what he had said. It turned out he was telling us the time of the next train. It was so random, cuz he could have gotten that out as he was walking by us...but instead, there was this long awkward pause that all had us in hysterics. What a weirdo. Anyway, we waited for the train inside, and talked a bit, and when it finally arrived, the 2 guys sat with us. I changed from my heels to my runners in case we got stuck in a down pour and had to book it. When we arrived however, the rain had luckily stopped.

Toni and I walked back to her Mom's place where we said bye, and I got in the car to drive to the Chinese restaurant I was meeting my Aunt, Uncle, Heloise and the family at to celebrate my Uncle's birthday. We ate soooo much, and had a really nice time. When we had finished, and eaten ourselves silly, Heloise, Josh, Nathaniel and Tim went in one car, Zach, my Uncle and Aunt went in another, and I walked back to where I had parked. On my way back to the house, I was smiling ear to ear, and singing away to my music.

When I arrived, I came upstairs, logged into my computer, then made some tea, and spoke to my parents on the phone/skype.

Clearly, this was not as short as I wanted it to be...but it's just too difficult to fit all that goodness into a small blog...so there you have it. My wonderful day in a very large nut shell. Now it's 5 to 1, and time for me to pass out. Thanks for reading. Good Night xx