I’ve always been a reader, so I fell naturally into writing, too. While I was still in school I helped out on a book project, so it occurred to me that once I graduated I could get into freelance writing. What I didn’t realize was all the random things that people come up with to write….
I answered a Craigslist ad seeking writers that didn’t require experience but knew something about natural health. It seemed ideal given that I didn’t have any experience and the book I had worked on dealt with alternative health. What I didn’t know was how the process worked, which is how I found myself in a questionable neighborhood with a questionable character with an even more questionable pit bull dog.
I’m not really sure what the neighborhood I was in was really called. I think it was somewhere near Arlington Heights, but the borders are a little iffy. The houses looked pretty decent, but in need of some repair. Then I realized that this really wasn’t a good area for a tiny suburban girl to find herself, with the regular parade of homeless people followed by the distant sound of sirens that went by as I tried to parallel park on a steep hill. There’s not much need for parallel parking in the suburbs, but it is pretty much a requirement in any crowded L.A. neighborhood.
The adventure began as I rang the bell and heard a scary dog start barking inside. Eventually a bleary eyed guy in a wife beater and boxers answered the door, acting as though I had been pounding on his door in the middle of the night and must be out of my mind. I explained that I was the writer, here for the job – apparently no interview was necessary. He said to meet him around the back and disappeared.
I headed in the general direction he had indicated only to find that the side gate leading to the back was locked. Eventually he seemed to remember and came to open the gate. It had also dawned on him to put on pants in the interim. He led me back to the garage, saying that he was still wasted from the night before. Once inside, I could smell that it had, indeed, been a fun night.
He explained that he did websites for rehab centers and needed content promoting the healing benefits of the treatments each center offered. I got the job and as I was looking through some of the other writer’s content, I learned all kinds of things: from the dictionary-sized list of names for marijuana to how to make a bong from anything to how to get the best high from household items.
Needless to say, my lack of experience in using drugs made my stories a little less emphatic on the high side of things and a little heavy on the recovery side. Also needless to say, the gig didn’t last as long as a celebrity stint in a treatment center.
