I like the way summer is looking.

Ahhh....back home.

I went up to Chicago yesterday morning, planning to have Abercrombie poloroids with Marissa, but ended up having a little meeting with her and Jan instead. (Apparently I was supposed to bring my bikini for the A&F poloroids, but I didn't know that. So we rescheduled them for Tuesday.) So in our little meeting we talked about the summer and generally where my career is going. It was good. Jan is so wonderful. She's the V.P. of Elite Chicago, and has been so behind me and believing in me since the day of my open call when I met her.

So, traveling abroad isn't really panning out for this summer, and we think I'll wait and travel in the fall. I love this, because this summer is when I get more time with Keith, Alison, Ashley, and lots of other people I love. In the fall, Keith will be traveling around a lot with soccer, Ashley will be in Prague, Ali will be back in school, etc., so I think it's a much better time for me to be away. So this summer I'll live in Macomb, keep working in Chicago and maybe traveling within the country for specific jobs, and testing whenever I get the chance. My modeling goals will be to make money, get more experience, and build my portfolio as much as possible while staying based in Chi-town.

As far as the test this past Tuesday with Alex Rivera, it went well. I had a great time. The test was organized by the makeup artist, Beth, and for most of the day it was just the three of us, because the wardrobe stylist left early. Alex is this super-sweet guy, Puerto Rican, grew up hardcore in church but has strayed away lately. Beth was raised Catholic but didn't stick with it and has a little boy who she prays with every night and who is starting to ask some big questions about this God they pray to. The three of us got to have some cool conversation about church, Christians, God, etc. I'm constantly amazed at the opportunities put before me in this business.

As for the actual photos, I don't know if Elite will like them enough for my book or not. We'll just see what they think when Alex finishes them and sends them over. He's still relatively new to fashion photography, and has just recently started using agency models, so it could go either way. I'll post some of the pictures when I get them.

More to come about the official Elite Spring Party & Afterparty last night...

Ooo....update! Two of the three looks we did for the test are up on his site. There are three photos from each of the two looks in the "portraits" section. They are pretty, but probably too "commercial" for my book. But I'm always happy to test--it's great for experience in front of the camera and I know it helps out the other people involved.