Local Domain

I enjoy working at my job in a law firm downtown in Chicago that handles bankruptcies. The attorneys and staff here are very hard-working and friendly people. I like this job because I can work odd hours and therefore go to school and not have to be completely broke. I make pretty good hours and I’m glad this office is open on Saturdays, because I make a lot of my hours then. I am the receptionist and meet lots of different people. Like the couple who wanted some information about filing a Florida bankruptcy. There was also a couple who wanted to know if they could file bankruptcy because someone had gotten their credit cards and social security number and ran their credit through the roof. They even had gotten a couple of cars in their name, and were in the process of buying some property. They were going to be evicted from their home if they didn’t get a handle on this identity thief problem, and wanted to know if filing bankruptcy should be the way to go. I passed this question along to the next available attorney. It’s a shame that having your identity stolen can cause some many problems.

The phone is ringing of the hook, the mail box is overflowing, the lawyer’s bills just keep on piling up, I am just a mess. If only I had a solution to this major bankruptcy my business had sunk into. It came to a point that I was losing sleep at night with all my bankruptcy questions. Finally a friend of mine suggested I call a local, not so well known lawyer. Maybe he will help out for a more reasonable price. I was getting sick of hanging up on the creditors, and all the letters stating the date I will be evicted from my house were actually beginning to scare me. I found a number in the back of the yellow pages and dialed it. At first I went into a major rampage, to the extent that the poor frazzled secretary in the other line had to remind me that I called a law firm not the crisis hotline. Then after a few moments I was able to compose myself and managed to explain my problem. The woman on the other line was extremely sympathetic, and reassured me by telling me that I have for sure called the right office. I booked an appointment for the next day; this had already calmed me down quite a bit. As I scribbled it down on my calendar I underlined which to me were the most important words FREE CONSULTATION! The next day came and went quickly, but that one consultation helped me change my life for a much less hectic housekeeper and business woman.

There is a house on my street that has been half built for what it seems like the better part of the last five or so years. I think that the contractor that was building the house declared for bankruptcy or something. I think the construction has started and stopped more times than Lindsay Lohan was gone to rehab. In all seriousness, I think that they resumed construction at least three times and every time they would run out of money again and have to halt construction. I think that I could have built the house myself in all the time that it has taken. I do not even know how the house would function or last with all the starting and stopping. There has to be problems with the construction, plus if they were trying to save money, I’d be afraid that everything would fall apart. At one point they decided that they would be able to cut some of the costs of construction if they added more windows, so one whole side of the house is spotted with windows, it looks ridiculous. Maybe one day I will get to meet the people that move into that house, and I can tell them about the incredible process of the house being built.

The party next door woke me up. For the lack of being able to fall back asleep I flicked on the television set my husband and I had just received from our children as an eighteenth anniversary present. I watched in horror as I saw flames rise up on the screen, the seemed to be coming out of an all too familiar looking office building. The reporter’s voice came on and identified the offices as the city’s most successful bankruptcy lawyers newly renovated three million dollar structure. My drowsiness had completely left me as my mind was now enveloped in the sudden realization; this building was my husband’s baby. My husband was one of the lawyers just mentioned by the news. I had even helped design the architect of that beautiful building that hosted the work place of many rich and successful businessmen. About ten minutes later my husband’s cell phone began ringing again and again. At first I was going to answer it, but that would leave me having to give over the tragic news so I left it, hoping he would wake up from the ringing on his own. It was around 5 am and I was exhausted however I forced myself to go into the kitchen and make the lovely breakfast my husband would so desperately need before he checked the messages on his cell or read the morning paper.