THE WORKSHOP LADY FIGHTS OTTAWA BYLAW

I have hosted a lot of workshops to pay the bills in the off season.  Some of these workshops have one attendee, and some have had 25. On one of those more hectic of days, one of my  neighbors called Bylaw 

about the cars then bragged to my next door neighbour. He was perfectly within his right to do so because the street was full of cars for a few hours. I sure wish he would have talked to me directly because this one call impacted my business greatly. If you've ever read the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven, he is one of my five people; changed my life more than he could have imagined and he has no idea what a can of worms he opened, nor does he care. No longer could I live under the radar, trying to keep everyone happy.

This  notice from by law really threw me for a loop and filled me with fear. They weren't warning me that I would get a ticket on my car because there was no car past three hours on the road. Another fear I hadn't considered is that I would receive a large fine for doing something I didn't know I couldn't do.  I figured better to ask forgiveness because if I spoke to the wrong clerk answering the phone and they gave me inaccurate advice, which made me shut it down for no reason, that would be a colossal waste. Whenever I called city hall, I always got different answers.  

The boogey man powers-that-be were getting ready to impact my life potentially as The Workshop Lady.  Planning for the workshops can be exhausting but I do love doing them. My fear was I wouldn't be able to do them any further. On the reverse side if I didn't have the workshops I could finally focus on filling the bed and breakfast. I have boxes of ideas of things I've never done that I should have followed up on but why would I do that when I have the workshops to fall back on and I know they are helping so many people. I also know many people would be thrilled to know there's a bed and breakfast that's more economical than what they've been used to in the area. Back and forth my jumble of a mind went with His Nibs, my neighbour, not giving a rats ass and pretty proud of himself.  .

I'M NOT BITTER.  Just a few more hairs from his brush and I will have enough for a pin cushion doll, voodoo that is!  Mwahaha

I know if I have to shut down the workshops, it will strongly impact a number of other people including the church lady who holds her meetings here.  I love those meetings but if I can no longer host them they will have to be moved out of my home. If I could no longer host her, I could be going  to the church and fully participate but more than likely, she will semi-retire from this gig and that makes me sad.  For the Paint Nites, I could become a mobile paint Workshop lady instead of doing it in the comfort of my own home but that is a massive amount of work.  Oh my head is a jumble trying to figure out all the computations, pros and cons. What is the universe telling me?

I wouldn't have to deal with Meetup cancellations and no-shows  anymore and that would be a relief. People suck when they sign up and no show, some even on the same day.  I finally started holding people accountable and making them prepay and that made my life a whole lot easier. The irony that, now that it's gotten easier but I can no longer hold the large workshops does not escape me? In the blink of an eye, it's become next to impossible. 

Because I didn't know who it was who had complained; the whole neighbourhood became suspect- like mob mentality potentially. Everywhere I looked, I saw Big Brother, staring and frowning at me. I got paranoid. I cancelled my biggest workshop that I'm most proud of. I will be reduced to having tiny groups only. I was furious with this person but then I reminded myself that our biggest teachers are the ones we often resent the most. If I'm going to walk the walk, I better walk the talk.  A kindly neighbour let me know who the offender was and all of a sudden the vice grip on my nervous heart released.

A few years ago I went to every house on my street to give them my postcard to let them know there was a B&B which had opened and might benefit them. One particular gentleman took one look at me and said, "not interested".  Being Canadian, I apologized and said I wasn't selling, just wanted him to know about....I'M NOT INTERESTED he yelled at me.  There's no fixing that.

By then I had come to terms with the lemons I have been thrown and I realized that it might be a blessing in disguise.

As an entrepreneur I picture hosting a big Workshop makes me feel successful but I don't get to join in on the fun. Smaller ones are a lot more slap happy and we can chew the fat and get more intimate conversation going. I have now stopped advertising as much and people are still coming and hearing about it. It also frees me up time to cook less and even attend my own workshops. Today I got to go to Trish's mosaic broken glass art because I wasn't stressing about workshops. http://merakimosaics.ca/.  That was a blast.

As a goodwill gesture, before I knew whom I'd angered, I decided to host a free Street Paint and Sip for up to 16 families. I sent out the invites, cooked a lot, chilled wine, made hot cider and waited for RSVPs to come in. Unfortunately, even without the cherished positive RSVP, you still have to be prepared, just in case. Alas, no one showed. I knew in my heart before hand

that it would be a flop so I had invited a buddy to paint with and we had fun. Never have I more seriously considered moving on that very sad day.

Should have done this weeks earlier but finally made it to the Bylaw office and spoke to the most wonderful lady ever.  I never worried that anything I told her would be used against me as she was retiring soon and had seen it all. We talked about parking and building a front deck, hosting parties, Puff and Paint Weed Classes, and flowers. She knew every thing and every body.  She told me to build another parking spot but NEVER to the road....as I noticed on her map that every other neighbour, including the tattle tale had done. Verrrrrry interesting. Golly, I hope no one calls bylaw on him for that little indiscretion!  

So the bottom line is no man is an island but rather I must co-exist with many neighbours and I have to be cognizant of their many issues and eccentricities.  I myself, have none.  While I have had reason to call Bylaw myself, I chose rather to talk to the neighbour, no matter how awkward it was and how much I hate conflict.  

Finishing on a positive note, the pandemic strikes me as having similarities to my predicament which is based on fear. We have to turn around our perceptions of our negative events to extract the lesson, the positive.  We all want everyone to like us and when that doesn't happen, it can be quite disturbing.  As long as I can re-frame these events, everything will work out as it should.  I just have to trust the process.