Chaos Chronicles: The Real-life Saga of a Day Gone Haywire(True story)

By Chere B. Estrin

At the ungodly hour of 3:30 a.m., I am jolted awake to pitch-black darkness. Panicking, I fumbled around, desperately trying to figure out why my world had turned into a sightless abyss. No lights, no window, no door, no lights in the backyard, just me, groping for my phone like a blindfolded contestant on a reality show. I get it in my hand but I can’t see it. Put it right in front of my face and still can’t see it. Of course, I had forgotten to charge it. But that wasn’t my concern right then. There was nothing. Could feel it, not see it. Cue the melodramatic thoughts: OMG! I’m blind! I’m blind! But wait, a glimmer on the window sill—it’s not a vision apocalypse; it’s a power failure, according to my ever-so-calm husband.

Fast forward to the morning about to begin. A massive webinar looming, hundreds of attendees coming and thanks to the power outage, we are web-less. Solution? A Starbucks dash!

“Starbucks always has internet. No matter what.” GPS set for the nearest caffeine haven, only to discover it was a Starbucks within an Albertsons. Brilliant.

Plan B: McDonald’s. We pull into the nearest one: “closed for remodeling.” But behold, the drive-thru lives! Laptop precariously balanced on my husband’s well-endowed stomach, pushed up against the steering wheel, we host the webinar from the back of the McDonald’s parking lot, surrounded by trash cans and the dulcet tones of drive-thru orders. I could smell the greasy fries and salivated for a Big Mac.

Prestigious online event in the most unexpected venue? Check!

Next stop: the memory doctor. Two months of anticipation and nerves, fearing the worst for my forgetful brain. Diagnosis? Small brain, big intelligence. Turns out, I’m just drowning in information overload, a casualty of our high-speed, social media-driven world. Crisis averted.

Exiting the doctor’s office, reality hits in the form of a massive parking structure. Lost car? Check. Husband with a bum knee? Check. I can’t believe it. I just left the memory doctor. With a heroic “you sit, I’ll find,” I embark on a key-fob beeping quest across multiple levels. Finally, success! Text sent: “Found it, third level”. Commence waiting. And waiting. Still waiting. Husband texts me: “stuck in the elevator”Are you serious?? Panic mode: engaged. Threatening to call the fire department, I envision those big hulky guys in sexy uniforms, big hunky boots, godlike chiseled features and rippling forearms.  Not so much a bad thing for a woman of a certain age. But no, he insists. DO NOT CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. Ok! Ok! I think it’s a guy thing – you know, where they absolutely have to remain macho. The “I will figure this out myself” syndrome. A call to the elevator people, a futile attempt. Cue the fire department. Twenty minutes later, my husband emerges, knee intact, grinning like a Cheshire cat. I would have had a totally different take on it, believe me. Home? Check. That would really be a good idea. 

Yep. Just another day in the Estrin-Brody household, where power outages lead to impromptu McDonald’s webinars, memory doctors diagnose information overload, and parking structures become epic quests.

 

"Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence.
The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning." -Denis Waitley
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure
with no loss of enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill
"Persistence, hard work and hiring good people."
When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same answer" - Kiana Tom
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About the Author

Chere Estrin has over 20 years of experience in the staffing arena, including executive positions in law firms, litigation support companies, and the legal staffing divisions of a $5billion publicly held corporation. She is CEO of Estrin Legal Staffing, a nationwide staffing organization. Ms. Estrin was founder of the Paralegal Knowledge Institute, an online CLE organization. She publishes the prestigious digital magazine, KNOW, the Magazine for Paralegals, and is the former Editor-in-Chief of Sue, the Magazine for Women Litigators. She is also the author of 10 books about legal careers for attorneys and legal professionals.

Ms. Estrin’s contributions to the legal industry have been significant, and she continues to play an active role in shaping the future of legal staffing and training. She writes the popular,

award-winning blog, The Estrin Report, and has been interviewed by CBS News along with many top publications, such as The Wall Street JournalFortune Magazine, Forbes.com, Los Angeles Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Newsweek, The Chicago Tribune, The Daily Journal, ABA Journal, Above the Law, ALM, Law360 and many others. She has also been a speaker for many prestigious organizations and written hundreds of articles.

As the Co-Founding Member and President of the Organization of Legal Professionals (OLP), Ms. Estrin has guided the association’s development and implementation of the eDiscovery and Litigation Support certification exams (first in the country) along with Pearson Publications, a $7 billion corporation specializing in certification exams and educational publishing. She was also the Education Director designing, creating and executing online, live training programs with an on-call roster of over 500 instructors throughout the world. Currently, she provides webinars on legal career matters for LawPractice and Lawline, two of the largest attorney CLE online training organizations.
Ms. Estrin is a co-founding member of the International Practice Management Association (IPMA) and the Organization of Legal Professionals, composed of a prestigious Board of Governors inclusive of judges, an ABA President, and well-known attorneys. She is the recipient of the Los Angeles/Century City “Women of Achievement” award and recognized as One of the Top 50 Women in Los Angeles. Ms. Estrin has been writing The Estrin Report since 2005 and most recently launched her podcast, “Lawfully Employed”.

Reach out at: chere@estrinlegalstaffing.com or visit her website at www.EstrinLegalStaffing.com.