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Loving Life

So, this is life as a court reporter. I have been reporting for just over a month, and it is awesome. The first two weeks I had some scheduling conflicts and couldn't work as often as I wanted to. When I was back from vacation, I only got one job in a whole week! I was pretty discouraged. However, the next week things seemed to pick up. I've had at least one job every day for 2.5 straight weeks and I'm up to my ears in pages. I've had two rushes in the past week and took my first medical expert witness tonight. I don't feel like I'm ready to do medicals a lot - I'm glad it was only 50 minutes today and that the expert was "just" an OBGYN - and I'm SO grateful for the sweet lawyer who gave me a list of terms that would come up - but for the most part, today's job went well and it gave me a boost of confidence. The agency I am working with has been great, and I've gotten plenty of work. I told them that I was ready to work as hard as I could and they just keep throwing things at me! It has been a really good (and FAST) month.

Can I just say how much I love living and working in DC, too? Of my 22 jobs, I have walked to 14 of them, taken the metro to 3, and driven to 5. I get good exercise and am able to see the city. I have to wonder how many people think I'm a flight attendant, though, with my constantly rolling my case around!

I'm so glad I went through school and finally finished some sort of schooling. My husband had watched me switch from major to major before I finally heard about court reporting and decided, "I want to do that." I really wanted him to see me finish something, and I finally did! I love being a court reporter!

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Comment by Annette Shepherd on November 1, 2009 at 9:19: Hi Jackie!! Congrats!!! Welcome to the life of a CR!! I agree with cutting down to four jobs a week, you don't want to burn out and that kind of schedule will burn you out down the road...I'm happy for you that things are going well...

Comment by Saniya C. Youngblood on October 30, 2009 at 6:46: Hello Jackie, I am so happy for you, it sounds so exciting. I can't wait to be done too!
I have 5 more test left. I finally past a 225. I have been picturing myself working for weeks now, I cannot wait until it really happens. Finishing court reporting school is such a huge accomplishment.

Comment by Janet on October 23, 2009 at 7:47: I've always wanted to work in DC. I think it's a beautiful city. Good for you!

Comment by April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR on October 22, 2009 at 19:34: Working in DC, you lucky girl. I love that city! Sounds like everything's going well. And if I were you, I'd take Glen's advice -- a proofreader -- since you're new you will want to scope your work for a while, but when using a proofreader you'll be able to get great (hopefully) advice, and there's a lot to learn from a good proofer.

Good luck to you :D

Comment by Glen Warner on October 21, 2009 at 22:41: Jackie --

Congratulations! Bet hubby is happy for you.

I would recommend that you cut down your work time from five days a week to four, though.

This way, you can have Friday (and the weekend, if necessary) to work on any transcripts that HAVE to be in yesterday (hate when stuff like that happens).

It would also help if you were to hire yourself a proofreader/scopist. Doing that will give you more time to push out those deps, and you'll be able to do more deps in the four days you work!

Just a thought ... and again, Congrats on finding your niche!

--gdw
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