Friday, February 17, 2006

Is this week over yet?

Things just keep getting better. I had the worst fight with my landlord. She called me yesterday afternoon saying I had three days to pay her almost $800. She bought the building recently and try to illegally raise my rent...twice. When she sent the rent increase letter (without 30 days notice) it was little less then what I was paying so that is what I paid.

I called the LA office of rent stablization to find out what my rights were.
After a very heated "discussion" this morning, she is not going to raise my rent until the fall but I still have to pay over $600 in back rent. Thank god I keep good records. I sent her copies of canceled checks to prove that her attempt to increase my rent again in May (after raising it in the fall) was illegal. Needless to say the last 24 hours were not fun.

They were serving some Prosecco (italian sparkling wine) at a reception in the courtyard, before class last night. I had just been on my cellphone with my sister talking about the crazy landlord. I walked into the courtyard a little wound up. However, after seeing my friends and a class of wine I calmed the hell down.

I had to tell the class what I did on Valentine's Day (see previous post). Our professor was in rare form last night. He thought my proclamation was funny. He told the other single person in the class, it's a good thing she doesn't own any cats. Il cane? Buono. Il gatto? Non.

Okay I was being a little melodramtic in my earlier post. I have this bad habit of when something goes wrong/upsets me, I do a greatest hits rundown of all the things that are wrong. This of course gets me more upset. It all started with reading in the trades about yet another boy-wonder writer/director under 30 who signed a multi-million dollar deal. Then dealing with flaky people who say they are going to do something but don't. Ugh, one of my biggest pet peeves. Why do they offer? I found out I have to pay a business tax since I'm an independent contractor. Plus I was PMSing. My landlord was just the icing on the cake.

My friend thinks I am very stressed out and suggested I go to a Buddhist meeting with her tonight. I had introduced her to another friend of mine and that friend is also coming. I have never been to a Buddhist meeting. Now normally on Friday nights I do something very exciting, sit on my couch and read scripts. I'm trying to break the cycle.

Back to romance, so I really don't believe it's dead. I know too many amazing couples (of course most of my friends here are single, east coast different story). Romance is out there, just not in my little universe. This is one of many reasons why I need to move.

2 comments:

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Hey J, you are so right. I try not to get "caught up" in the biz. Taking classes and volunteering helps but when 98 percent of your LA friends are in the same industry it's not easy. I haven't read any reviews about the new FX show. I know Cube and Matt Alvarez produced it.

gibber said...

Yeah, DC stinks. As for black/white, we came very close to screening black/white. I did see the first episode and it is HILARIOUS. The White guy who becomes Black will clearly be the breakout star of this show from all the outrageous things he says.