On Saturday, I rushed to Shangri La mall in Mandaluyong after work for Jessica Zafra’s book signing. She has just released two books: The Stories So Far and Geeks vs Jocks. I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet the bespectacled writer/blogger who keeps me wide awake with the wit, humor and audacity of her blog posts when things become too much in the office. The degree of my enthusiasm in reading has jumped up several notches because of her and for me it was an honor to have signed copies of her books. She is for me, a champion and advocate of bibliophilia among Pinoys. It definitely worked for me. 
I arrived at around 2:45pm and thought I would be drastically late but thank God that people were just starting to queue. The booktable had several old titles like the Twisted series but even if I wanted to have all the books, I only allotted for the two recently-published ones. When it was my turn, I managed to have small talk with Jessica, asking what are the chances she could bring Drogon (her imperious white cat she often features in her blogposts) on the next book-signing and how she was doing after her bout with a nasty virus, which, it turns out, was just a case of electrolyte imbalance. I had my picture taken with her as well.
The author, busy signing a book for one of her fans.
Seeing her scribble her signature on the books justified the heat and the mad rush to the mall. The Stories So Far was purportedly the author’s collection of short stories long overdue for publishing. In her blog, I loved the little snippets of stories and I had hoped I could read more of her fiction. This is it! 
You can read Jessica’s blog at: Jessicarulestheuniverse.com. After the book signing I strolled in the mall and happened to see artists in session at the 3rd level. 
They are known as The Saturday Group, various artists who use different mediums and convene every Saturday to have sketching or drawing sessions to celebrate the craft they love. Watching them made me want to whip out my sketchpad and pencils, except of course I didn’t bring any.
I loved this artist’s work most of all. He used soft pastels to do the highlights and tones for sketching.
It was interesting how each artist had a different way of translating the subject to their own medium. Some did breathlessly realistic sketches while others were a bit impressionistic. The model had a brightness to her face I would have loved to capture if I have been able to do my own sketch of her.
Brownstubs 
Oh you were very lucky you get to meet her finally!!!!!