Posts Tagged Personal News
11 U.S.C. § 341, or, When Nobody Shows Up
Posted by Steven Buehler in Life on January 16, 2010
Friday morning was the Section 341 meeting in Tampa for my bankruptcy. In layman’s terms, it’s also called the “meeting of creditors.” It’s a hearing with the trustee appointed by the court to decide what I get to keep and what I have to part with. It’s also supposed to give creditors the opportunity to object or ask questions.
Fortunately for me (?), none of my creditors showed up. The meeting took all of five minutes or so. Now I wait for the next three months to see what happens and what I’ll have to give up before the discharge.
The meetings occur in large batches. The trustee works her way through a tall stack of documents on the desk, calling up each debtor for the routine series of questions. One of them provides interest: “What caused your bankruptcy?” Also covered is the conduct of one’s creditors—various questions that they ask responses to in order to make sure the creditors are abiding by the law in their collection processes (I learned quickly that Chase isn’t very good at abiding by the law in terms of their collection practices).
Since I was in town, I sent an email to a former colleague at HPS to see where they were headed for their Friday lunch (a weekly tradition), and joined up with them for a great time at the local Chili’s to catch up on what was happening in the working world before I headed back to Plant City.
I miss the job and I don’t. I miss the lunches.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Posted by Steven Buehler in Uncategorized on October 16, 2009
Being unemployed with insufficient income means that I eventually had to make the trip to the local Public Assistance office to get help with rent, food, utility bills, etc. So that’s where I was last week—filling out paperwork, waiting around with a few dozen other people of all races and backgrounds for public help from Hillsborough County.
In hard economic times like these, you have to get over your pride and be willing to ask for help.
There are also chance meetings that happen in places like these.
There was the family of three (Mom, Dad, and new baby) in the conference room, casualties of a lay off, holding a three-day “pay or quit” notice from a landlord who would not negotiate. Before we left we offered them information we had found on where to find food.
In the waiting room was a young lady, wearing a bandana on her head, clearly tired, clearly weak, reading an informational book on chemotherapy. She fell asleep as my name was being called for the back office. On our way back to the exit we snuck into the employee lounge to buy a Sprite from the soda machine to give her some energy and left as she gratefully chugged it down.
Sometimes when we’re willing to ask for and seek help we find that it becomes an opportunity to help someone else too.
About Me
I'm a 30-something blogger, sometimes writer/musician, and geek-of-all-trades starting life over in Plant City, Florida, with the faith of my youth, the love of my life, and prayers for a job before my unemployment compensation runs out in April 2010.
David Housholder's Blog
Michael Lewis
My Amazon.com Wish List