Hi, Natalie.

I think it's so awesome that you're a sign language interpreter. I have a friend in court reporting school with me (I'm a court reporting student, too!) who got into the field because he also is a sign language interpreter. He wants to do broadcast captioning when he gets out of school. Me? I'm not sure what I'd like to do when I get out... kind of leaning toward pro tem work at the courts or captioning work from home, if possible.

Anyway, can't really dwell too much on that. GOTTA GET OUT OF SCHOOL FIRST! :) I'm at 160 with one more test to pass to get into 180. How about you?

By the way, I have a blog that chronicles my journey in the court reporting program. I created it for myself but also (and I think even more importantly) to be an encouragement and good resource for fellow court reporting students. Check it out at stenonerd.blogspot.com.

I hope you have a great birthday, Natalie! Oh, and I love your profile pic! Hehehe :)

Christine
stenonerd.blogspot.com

Natalie,

Are you doing the SimplySteno program? I saw your name on the tesitmonials page and was wondering if you have any additional feedback. I go to a school, I'm at about 180/200 and just need to get done. I want to savew on gas and time (it takes ma about an hour to get there and a half an hour to get home). I also have been in school for six years and need a change. Do you really recommend this program?

Thanks,

Corinne

I am on Case Catalyst 4.9 or whatever, the newest version, and I have the mira with audio and I LOVE IT!!! It literally changed my life. I used to have to do realtime for every little job just to have the audio and now I can just tote around my machine for the one hour jobs or motions or whatever!

I would say most of my work is downtown, BUT I prefer to work downtown. The deps are longer, you make more money! If you take work in the suburbs, it's nice if it's only one to three times a month, but usually it's at a dr.'s office and he has an hour to spare. On the other hand, I've had very lucrative suburban jobs, but the majority are shorter.

And whenever you're ready to intern, let me know!!! The offer will stand!!

Hi, Natalie. I really don't know how to describe the Chicago market right now. We are busy one month, slow the next. I've been with the same firm for 11 years and the last two to three years have been really "weird"!!! For instance, it was so slow last month that I couldn't for the life of me make any money. Then all of a sudden we have three daily trials and I have 500 pages of a video dep, etc., etc.

What speed are you in? When you're ready to do your internship, let me know. Come to my firm and I'll take you on a job!!!

Do they still have CCC, Chicago College of Commerce? Lots of good reporters came out of there. Have you checked out depoman.com? There's lots of posts about online schooling there, not sure how current, but maybe you can meet some compadres there.

I really found the whole "documenting my practice" thing useful. Unfortunately, I say I practice, but I can really see how little I do practice on paper. It motivates me to practice more.