KONNICHIWA!! (Slightly Edited)

As perhaps you might guess from the title of this post, I am in Japan...Tokyo to be exact. Life is really so full of surprises and twists and turns. Ask me on Monday morning where I would have been on Tuesday and I would've told you in Culver City, CA doing some Health & Wellness work. However, God moves in mysterious ways and so we never know what His plans are.

So, on Monday evening at around 5:30 or so I was hanging out with my brother, when I received an unexpected phone call from the sports modeling agency that I do some off and on work with. I looked at my phone but as I was fully engrossed in a conversation, I chose not to answer, figuring I'd get back to them soon enough. Five minutes later, I get an email from them saying "Contact us ASAP regarding a direct booking opportunity!" So, I excuse myself from my conversation and call them back. Jeff, one of the agents at Sports Unlimited answers and proceeds to tell me that I've been offered a job in Tokyo but I have to leave on Tuesday. My immediate concern is what is it that they are going to want me to do, because if it's sprinting or jumping, then unfortunately I would not have been able to accept the job because of the incapacity of my Achilles.

I tell Jeff to find out the specifics of the job and to let me know. He does and as it turns out, they want me in spite of my limitations. Woohoo!!:-) By the time all the details are worked out, ie. travel, contact and hotel info, payment terms (which are pretty darned good!!), etc. it's around 7:30pm. I had already agreed to have dinner with a friend of mine and I didn't want to break that so I went to dinner and then began the task of packing to leave for my 5 day trip.

Due to my years and years of travel, I am an expert packer and so I get through the process relatively quickly and made it to bed by midnight. I still had to run a few errands in the morning and try to rearrange a few things in my schedule but I made it to my 1:13pm flight very comfortably. I've already met the other two girls who I will be shooting with and we start bright and early in the morning. Actually, it's 2:22am right now but I'm up because thank God, Track and Field is important over here too and they are airing the World Championships live on TV. GO Team Bahamas!!!

The only drawback to being in Japan is that they use a quadband phone service and so US phones don't work over here, so no BBM:-( I might go through withdrawals lol. It's ok though because I think it's good every once in a while to be detached from the constant buzzing and obligation that a phone inherently causes. I have Skype anyway so it's all good:-)

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll be sure to update with pictures etc whenever I get a chance. Until then, stay blessed....

****Due to legal reasons, no pictures will be allowed of the shoot...sorry!

****Also, my room is on the 30th floor of my hotel and about 5 minutes ago, I just felt a PRETTY STRONG earthquake:-((!!!! Not fun at all......

"NICE GIRLS/GUYS FINISH ______"

Today I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who lives in Europe and after catching up for a bit, our conversation veered towards his recent realization that he seemed to be getting his way in life so much more now that he had switched gears from being the stereotypical "nice guy" to being as he put it "rude".

He said that he had struggled in past relationships because of being too nice. That he had gotten taken for granted and that he wasn't being appreciated for his good nature. He said the same thing could said to be true in the work place. That those persons who came off somewhat arrogant and forceful were the ones getting ahead. And that as soon as he changed his persona somewhat, the results were pretty instantaneous.

You know it got me to thinking about the whole nice guys/nice girls finish last saying and I wondered if he might truly be onto something. Men do seem to gravitate to women who "speak their mind" and who "tell it like it is". Even if it results in frequent confrontation. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's the challenge. The drama. Maybe it's the constant struggle for power and the excitement and the roller coaster ride that brings the intrigue. But how long can that be fun? Doesn't that get old after a while?

I agree, it's good to be challenged and to exude justifiable confidence. Who wants some spineless sap? But at the cost of being rude and disrespectful?? Call me crazy, but I'm just not gonna go there. It's not who I am and if had to end up being "last" because of it, then at least I'd have my integrity and know that I remained to true to who I really am. I guess on the flip side, though, if someone naturally is outspoken and confrontational then they should be who they are too 'cause there are definitely a lot of guys and girls that like that. I guess it's the people who fake it one way or the other, who are the biggest culprits.

As far as in the workplace goes, my mind goes to that movie The Devil Wears Prada and Meryl Streep's character, the powerful Miranda Priestly. She was the ruthless and merciless executive of Runway fashion magazine.
She took no prisoners and said what she wanted, when she wanted it, how she wanted it and that was it! No ifs, ands or buts!!!! She was definitely successful, as is Anna Wintour, the US Vogue Fashion editor who the movie is said to be based on. I just wonder if that's necessary in order to get ahead, particularly if you are female on the job? I don't know.

Every year I promise myself to work on my mean streak, lol and it has been slow in coming:( I just hate it though, when people mistake kindness for weakness and then presume to take advantage of that. To me it's not a sign of weakness because it's actually not always easy to be "nice". There are many times when you have to bite your tongue or try and I do say try to be the bigger person. So perhaps a happy combination, maybe 3/4 nice and 1/4 not so nice is ideal, ....who knows?

In the meantime, I'm just gonna go on being a self-proclaimed nice girl and if I don't get some job or if I've had some guy pass on me because of it, then neither one was for me anyway.