Managing to Survive

    Here we go.

    Alright, for the past decade or so, I've sold my time to survive in the rental property induhstry. Yes, that's right. I'm a professional on-site manager. I'm the one you call when you get confused by your light bulbs and can't figure out where the smell is coming from (hint: It's you. It's your place. It's how you live.) So much of this job is baby sitting, keeping old people from falling into the pool, picking up dog poop in the hallway, explaining the same things to the same people over and over and over.

    

    No, your desk lamp light bulb is not part of maintenance.

    No, the pool's been there the whole time.

    No, we really do need you to take your dog outside the building to poop. Outside your apartment isn't outside enough. 
 

    I sit on an unnatural perch and have unnatural insight into how people live (unnaturally). How people organize their lives (or don't), manage the space in which they live (or don't) and conduct themselves in a small, forced community is endlessly fascinating and ultimately exhausting.

    Also: Cars are ultimately more trouble than they are worth. We should trade the cars for more trains and walking. 

    If I had to come up with one word (words!) for this job, it would be DON'T. But "free" rent is pretty attractive, isn't it? And no evicting the manager during the pandemic...right?

    A better word, or at least the word I try to use as much as possible, is the word REASONABLE. Most of the time if people could just be reasonable, the problems would evaporate or never materialize in the first place.

    I think this is a valuable topic to explore, this business of selling temporary space to people who need housing. It's weird. It's upsetting. A lot of the the renters' and owners' day-to-day issues are manufactured (or at least avoidable). And a lot of it is completely unreasonable.

    And what's really unreasonable is the pilot I've been writing (and re-writing) for ten+ years (Managing to Survive) is still not a global hit. I mean, I'm supposed to translate this life-altering chaos job into an easy to follow narrative with relatable (but not boring) characters, hilarious (but believable) situations, with deep (but not preachy) insight into the human condition AND it's all gotta happen in under 32 pages AND, let me get this straight, it's suppsed to be funny? 

    Now that's unreasonable.


    (But I'll always take a meeting! Also, Draft #5 is done!)