March Madness

I took the entire weekend off!  It was awesome.  We court reporters rarely have the luxury of a true weekend, and even though I have a LOT of pages pending, I just wanted to relax.  After last week's half marathon (I finished!) and a crazy travel week, I just wanted to chill out and watch a few basketball games.  Must say I was disappointed with the outcome of the KY/UNC game.

In addition to the traditional March Madness, I lost one of my scopers - she took a "real" job back in the private sector.  Of course, this comes at a time when I have a few thousand pages in the queue.  Then my other scoper has a family medical emergency (aging parent) and is not available for me as much as she and I would like - at least not right now.

Then, of course, there's the travel.  The State is still short reporters, so those of us who are rovers are really roving.  I've been to several eastern counties that I would not normally be assigned to. Adding between four and five hours to my days.  But the good news is I'm adding to my collection of courthouses - there are 100 counties in the state and I'm nearing 35 that I've reported in (I don't think I'll ever get all 100, but still, it's a pretty large percentage so far!).

So now I'll wrap up my March Madness with several late nights this week making sure I keep on track with my pages.  It'll be all right.  Of course, this is contingent upon the two-week daily copy trial that is supposed to start next Monday going away (as promised by defense counsel.).

Enjoy your March Madness - and I hope some of you haven't had your brackets completely busted!

A sadly missed opportunity

It's rare that I'm off court for a week.  It's a gift.  And I treasure the opportunity to work on transcripts.  I was so excited for this week.  I had a Monday hearing, and then three free days in the middle before having to cover in a murder trial on Friday.  Timing was great because I have two fairly large appeals.


You know the drill.  God laughs when we make plans.  GI virus hit hard Sunday evening/early Monday.  Down for the count.  Couldn't make my hearing Monday.  Sick all day Tuesday.  Barely upright on Wednesday.  Functional, but not in good form on Thursday.  Poof.  The possibility of 500-600 pages edited, gone.

The good news is, of course, I listened to my body.  I stayed in bed.  Didn't get my colleagues sick.  Got all better - not just partially.  So while I missed my opportunity to work and make some production progress, I didn't let my body get run down.  Instead, I will send a few more pages out to the scopist.  In these economic times, I don't mind sharing. 

Hopefully, though, another gift will come soon.