The Musings of Marianna

I was around 20 when I first sat inside a school bus, and I am advanced in my 27th year as I first experience the reality of the thing they call, Spring Break.  To state the obvious, I'm a homeschooler.  A homeschooler at heart who is taking full time classes at a local school... so for the first time I'm experiencing "official" Spring Break.  It's pretty great.  And boy am I glad... my taxes need filing, I need to do some organizing and spring cleaning, time for extra practicing, and the best of all, I don't have to say goodnight at 9pm for a whole week. 

You cannot imagine the self discipline it takes to make myself go to bed so ridiculously early.   But then, you cannot imagine the ghastly feeling of trying to choke back tears in class because you're not "getting" the new concept that is being taught, all because your brain is exhausted, which makes you even more tear-prone.  No, I'll take the granny-time discipline any day. 

Actually, if I can get out of school without having an all out melt-down at school, I'll be happy.  Becoming a court reporter is difficult, so it's not at all uncommon to see ladies crying in the hallway while talking to a sympathetic teacher (it's disconcerting, I tell you).  Thus the high drop-out rate in court reporting school, and thus one of the reasons court reporters are paid well.

10 FINGERS
23 KEYS
800,000 WORDS

That really is how your brain feels.  And you never escape it, once you start.  It'll pounce on you at inopportune moments... while trying to sleep, while listening to someone speak,  in an instant you'll imagine how it would be in steno.  My teacher says this will only get worse, and I do believe her.  It also confuses your typing and spelling on a regular basis.

Practicing hours and hours is worth it for a job that is both profitable and flexible though... flexibility in a job is so important to me... that way, I can participate in the volunteer things I love, too.  Reaching the 225 words per minute goal line can't come fast enough.  Thus, my obsession with plunking away at my little steno machine these days... they say, the more you can practice these first two semesters, the faster you'll move through the other speeds.  I sure hope they're right...

'Cause otherwise.... this will be ME:

In other news, today I've worked through a lot of The Great Divorce by the brilliant C.S. Lewis (hooray for Sunday reading!!).  What a fascinating book!  Have any of you read it?  I hope to finish it tomorrow... as a matter of fact, I'm determined to finish it.  I've noticed a bad habit I have that I'm going to break... if I have a book I am really enjoying, I crawl through it.  I crawl through it because I like it so much, I don't want it to end, and I don't want to rush through it, I want to savor it.  So then, I end up with a ton of half-finished books laying around.  This must stop.  I need to just plow through, and remind myself that there are lots of other good books to enjoy next. Oh brother... I come up with some goofy habits sometimes 

 

Okay, I should stop typing now and wait for another day when I actually have something interesting to write.  So far, this has just been a ramble rant... which is just about all I seem to be able to write these days.