Introduction

Hello future friends.  My blogger name is StenoLou.  I'll explain my blogger name in a later post.  This is a blog for court reporters, court reporting students, or just people that I told about my blog.  I have no agenda for this blog, it's just to share my thoughts on court reporting.  For this first blog allow me to introduce myself.

I'm a pretty average working court reporter.  I'm a middle aged mom with two teenage boys.  I've been married for 20+  years.  I live in Buffalo, New York.  I had two other careers before going to court reporting school.  I have been a court reporter since November 12, 2001.  The reason I remember that date exactly is because the freelance firm that hired me wanted me to start on November 11 (Veteran's Day) but my kids were off of school that day so I asked if I could start the next day.  I was sure I already made my future employers angry with me by being inflexible due to my children's schedule.  In reality, they weren't mad at all.  (BTW, one of my new bosses was my sister-in-law so that just shows you how crazy I was to think they'd be mad at me.)

I worked at that freelance firm for nine years.  I did all the usual assignments...depositions, hearings, courtroom work, arbitrations.  Then in March of 2010 I was hired off of a Civil Service list and went to work for the District Attorney's Office as a grand jury reporter.  That was a job I loved, not only because the county paid for all of my family's medical insurance, but also because I worked for the first time with a group of other reporters, hand-in-hand.   As a freelance reporter I always worked alone.

In the fall of 2010 the State of New York offered an early retirement incentive to its employees and several reporters in the court system decided to retire.  I was on that Civil Service list too, the money was significantly better, and so after only nine months at the DA's Office I went to work for the New York State Courts.

All of this leads me to right now, working in Family Court on a very snowy, windy day in which I can't go for a walk at lunch so I finally decided to do my blog, hoping that maybe this will count for CE credits some day.  I am an RPR, hoping to be a CRR, so CE credits are something I worry about from time to time.

I hope this blog entertains you.  I want to blog about things that happen on the job, the people I work with, my thoughts on our profession, strategies for dealing with work and life's pratfalls. You'll also probably learn much more than you want to know about my husband, sons, dog, and all of my various outdoor adventures.

Well, that's enough for now.   It's Friday, which is bagel day around here, so I'm going to get one of the bagels the judge brought in.