Do not dismiss the good work

What I am loving lately: The City Council Gossip

This scandal completely made my week. I live in Los Angeles and my city council person has resigned after a leaked recording was released of her and three other powerful LA politicians engaging in an incredibly nasty, hateful, and racist conversation. If you listen to the entire recording, the backdoor meeting was around asset redistricting — who gets what neighborhoods and landmarks — and hateful things about many groups of people were being thrown around. It was power-hungry and unprofessional. Some may excuse it as “locker room talk” but if I ever talked like that at work, I would get fired immediately. I do not hold a high position nor do I make a lot of money like they do.

All I can say about her resignation is good riddance. I know the scandal will further confirm people’s biases about politicians. Yes, there are a lot of really bad actors but I don’t want people to dismiss the fact that there are also a lot of people who are working hard to make the city they live in a better place. It was promising to hear calls for her resignation because we all agree that we deserve someone better than her. It perplexes me how neighborhoods like North Hollywood and pockets of Van Nuys (thanks to gerrymandering) thrive many times over while here in my neighborhood the pace runs at baby steps.

A couple of years ago, I use to volunteer with the neighborhood council. At the time I worked in senior care and one evening I attended a neighborhood council meeting to do outreach to promote our health education workshops. It was a great experience meeting like-minded people who want to make the neighborhood a better place. I learned how economically diverse my neighborhood was and how we did not want another discount store taking up space in a strip mall. We are also tired of the trite narrative around our neighborhood being poor. There were some people who have volunteered at the neighborhood council for some time because they have aspirations to run for city council but running would require raising a lot of money and running against her who already has a lot of (bad) money. Since her seat is wide open now, I hope someone from our neighborhood council runs.

Lastly, her apologies were terrible. They were not even apologies. The first one was when she took a leave of absence from the City Council, she said, “As a mother, I know better and I am sorry. I am truly ashamed.” My initial thought was “is there a typo in her statement?” I hate it when people think that because they’re a parent they believe they know best. I hate how people think that being a parent automatically makes someone more sensible. Then she submitted her final statement when she officially resigned still NOT apologizing.

Oh, what a week! I thought to kick off this post with some gossip that serves as a cautionary tale about girl-bossery gone wrong and when it becomes abusive.

Spending a Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Auto Museum

Yesterday we celebrated Lana’s birthday at the Petersen Auto Museum. A couple of our friends and my parents came along. She had a lot of fun looking at the different cars and especially enjoyed the kid’s section.

Gifting: Skeins of yarn

I am gifting a few skeins of yarn in my neighborhood no-buy Facebook group to make space in one of my desk drawers. I was surprised by how quickly people expressed interest. Within five minutes after posting, someone wanted all my thin yarn. Afterward, three more people within an hour asked if I still had any thin yarn. I had a harder time gifting away the chenille yarn because it is thicker and it requires a thicker needle for crocheting and knitting. Then I had a commenter write, “Oh thank goodness this is gone! was so tempted but I really don’t need any more yarn! Whew!” I write back “LOL! The chenille yarn is still available.” That exchange was too funny because in the end she’s taking all my chenille yarn and now I have a free empty drawer.

What will I do with the free empty drawer? Well, my desk is so cluttered because the stuff on top of my desk do not have a “home.” You see, the stuff on my desk are the things I do use the most while the stuff in my drawer are the things I use the least and is taking up space. I want my desk space to be my working space again, not a place to just hold stuff.

Tags: Weekend Coffee Share