Practice Practice!

Tonight was not as productive on the practice front as I would like. I spent two hours pounding out practice exercises on the writing machine. My heart and head was not really in it, at all. Those particular organs were focused on my true love, Roller Derby. Yes, I love it. Tonight was date night for the husband and I. He dutifully took me to see a new Derby documentary about the Rose City Roller Girls called, Brutal Beauty. It was really well done! We had a great time. We had the entire theater to ourselves since it was Halloween and everyone else must have been out trick-or-treating or partying, respectively.
The rest of the evening was spent attempting to figure out how I would ever be able to fit Derby practice in with everything else we have going on. I have wanted to try out for the Denver Roller Dolls ever since I first got my hands on Knockdown Knits, by Joan Of Dark. It is a knitting book filled with patterns for such wonderful things as crutch pads, ice pack holders, arm slings, and other injury/derby related items. After going to my first bout when the Dolls were still at the Fillmore, I was hooked. I know that Roller Derby has taken off like mad the last few years. And with movies like, Whip It, and reality t.v. shows, well there are a lot of people interested in the sport. Therefore, lots of competition. I want to have a fighting chance when I do try out, so, practice, practice... Which brings us back to practice writing for school... I am tapped out for tonight. One can only write so many sentences with so many of the same words. Quiz this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Free Food!

Today was our Halloween celebration, yes, I went as static cling. Boring enough to get asked if I was laundry and funny in my own head. As most of the quirky little things I find funny. I was one of two people who dressed up in my class. There was a pot luck, Mexican food. The tamales were good. However, there was no cheese. Tacos, tostadas, etc. sans cheese? Who dropped the ball there?
We learned the SH endings of words today. For example, fish, wish, dish. Honestly, the entire dictation with those words I was thinking..."My name is Ish. I have a dish. It's my Ish Wish Dish. When I swish my Ish wish dish, I wish for fish.." -Dr. Seuss anyone? I am totally going home and writing the entire One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish book! Can you say story time?!

Phrasing T*S a PAEUPB! (Pain)

Phrasing, the ability to write two words or more with one stroke on the Steno machine. Ugh! Phrasing will be the bane of my practice session this evening. What to phrase, what not to phrase, that is the question. Well, I have concluded that I absolutely will not phrase unless I absolutely have to. It is a personal choice, as my teacher has informed us that if you are fast not phrasing or fast phrasing it does not matter which one chooses.
Today we had a guest speaker from Caption Colorado. He was very informative about the captioning industry and all of the available opportunities. Wow, you have to have the SKILLZ to be a caption-er. Also, one probably has to be able to tolerate television shows for longer than the 30 minutes I am willing to devote watching them. However, 45-80K per year for 80 hours per month of work, hmm... tempting.
We also had the VP of Stenograph come in and speak with us. He mentioned a rockin' local reporter that travels around the world doing depositions! AMAZING! I would love her to mentor me...

Learn Your Letters

The first 3 weeks of Court Reporting Academy are under my belt. I have learned a variety of letters and words on the Steno machine. Let's review! Week One: Ah, orientation. They took my picture in front of a wall of books with my Steno machine. I met most of the people in my class who all seemed very nice. A few other mommies, a couple young (right out of high school) people, all ranging from 18 to 45. There are only two men in my class. Looking at the wall of previous graduates, I would say that is quite an increase in the male population of court reporters. We learned how to write letters on both the right (initial) and left (final) hands. Exciting words like dog, cat, rat, the, a, were added to our vocabulary. Weeks Two and Three: Well, pretty much more repetition of the previous. We added letters d, b, n, g, m, i, y, j, to the mix, even beginning compound words (words with more than one syllable). See, everything is written phonetically. Thank goodness for Hooked On Phonics. That combined with having musical instrument training has made learning to write on the Steno machine quite simple for myself. I am constantly having to remind myself not to get too confident as I don't know everything yet. However, I am finding it difficult to sit through the 4 days a week, 5 hours a day when I have grasped a new concept in the first hour. Much like high school, I find myself bored due to lack of challenge. I must not give up. I must trudge through. This must not become that lonely Steno machine in the corner of my room. Screaming, another unfinished ambition. I must feed my family with this skill!

The Choice:

Hello big wide world! I have finally decided, at the age of 27, to begin a career. Not just any career, mind, but a career in Court Reporting. Well, how does one who wanted nothing more than to be a wandering novelist/poet with a bestseller under her belt choose to begin training as a court reporter? Answer, lack of financial security propelled by the need to achieve something lucrative and successful before turning thirty. Some may say I have given up the artistic ambition to become the next Neil Gaiman, but I say nay! With a career in court reporting I can fill the pockets of myself and my family while attempting to finish a first novel at 225 words per minute. Yes, folks, 225 words per minute can be written ( it is called writing NOT typing) on the Steno machine.
Having written for an art and fashion magazine, that went under, and achieved 2nd place in our local poetry slam (yay), I find myself in a quandary; will my writing ever actually take me anywhere?
I also have the great artistic tendency to not finish most things I start. Writing, two half written novels sit in my room. Knitting, bundles of yarn and only three finished scarves. Not to mention, the large library of knitting books that hold untried patterns. Electric Bass, it sits lonely in the corner of the living room. You get the idea.
Friends have been kind enough to put my unattained goals down to preoccupations with being a mother to two beautiful girls (2 and 7 months), working at a children's clothing store, moving, life, being a wife, etc. However, when you are on the cusp of 30 and watching everyone you know having kids, a house, real furniture, you say to yourself, " I need to get my ass in gear".
So, I decided that I would go back to school to become a court reporter. It is a two year course and has a variety of career options after graduation. It is not limited to official court reporting. And as Obama just passed the Telecommunications Act that requires anything from T.V. that is streamed on the interweb (nerd alert!) to have closed captioning, things are looking good for those with steno skills.