Writing Challenge

I am in a self-directed 30 day writing challenge. I can write whatever I want for at least 30 minutes/day for 30 days.

Day 2: What the Hell Am I Passionate About?

Day 3: Our Landlady: Karma

Karma works in mysterious ways. I guess that’s a bit of a stupid thing to write considering karma is a mystery unto itself. Nevertheless, I believe in the basic premise that if you do bad shit, something bad will happen to you, and conversely, if you do good shit, something good will come your way.

That’s why I was very surprised when our ex-property manager, let’s call her “CB” for “Crazy Bitch,” who is notorious for doing bad shit to her tenants and neighbors, had something good come her way.

We rented a detached house set in the front of a lot, with 2 units behind it. One of the back units is a one-bedroom detached apartment that is rented out. The other is a shack-like structure inhabited by CB. For about 30 years, CB has been the property manager and has taken care of gardening and the maintenance of both the front and back units. In exchange for her labor, she lives in the shack for free. As the actual owner of the property is very hands-off, CB has treated the property as her own, and in fact was promised a piece of the net-profits if the property was to ever sell. CB doesn’t have any source of income and she really looked at that as her retirement money.

Shortly after we moved into the front house, the owner of the property was moved into a retirement community by her daughter. At that point the daughter and her husband decided to take over the property management duties. They had been looking at the owner’s financial status and thought that CB had been pilfering money from her. Well, you can imagine the response by CB. She marched over to our house for the fifth time that day, and told us what was going on. She said that the daughter was a bad person and just wanted CB out on her ass so she could sell the house and take all the proceeds for herself. She retold stories of the owner owing her money, not the other way around. She had every intention of making the daughter’s life miserable. She allowed us to change the lease terms so that we could leave early. She took down all of the “Beware” signs that she had stuck around the property because she hoped that someone would get hurt and sue the daughter. As usual we half-listened to her and just focused on the window of opportunity to free ourselves of CB.

It wasn’t too long after we had to endure hearing CB’s plans for surviving on the street that we were visited by the homeowner’s daughter and son-in-law. They turned out to be a very sweet couple and were very empathetic to our situation with CB. It wasn’t too long before they were sympathetic after having to personally deal with her. We shared horror stories about our CB encounters and I started to relay similar types of stories from neighbors.

[More to add]

Upon reflection, I think that Karma has weighed in favor of the people who live on my old street in Silver Lake. Sure, CB is getting something of her very own, but she is leaving that street which serves the greater good of the people who live there.

Day 4: My Special Friend

Day 5: I worked on an old blog post about music and transmedia that I’ll post soon

Day 6: I mostly wrote about my project and women’s groups. I would say I didn’t write with purpose this day.

Day 7: LA Tacos

Day 8: I Hate Feeling Like I’ve Been Screwed

Day 9: Why Aren’t More Women Commenting on VC’s Blog Posts?

Note: I’m a Mom and I’m having trouble writing over the weekend, so I’m giving myself a break and not counting weekends.

Day 10: Is There Proof That 30 Something Mothers Will Fail Doing a Tech Startup?

Day 11: Susan Kare on Women at Apple / Women of Apple & Working With Steve Jobs

Day 12: Ada Lovelace Day Mentors

Day 13: Worked on a spec for my project/startup

Day 14: Worked on a spec for my project/startup