My Fair Lady - Spokane, WA part 2
Apr. 7th, 2024 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Thursday was a total wash.
The morning was spent nervously waiting for my new boss at my new court reporting job to call, then when he didn't I realized he probably wanted me to get with a court reporting instructor he'd referred me to yesterday instead. I texted to check if that was the case and it was. So another hour of nervous waiting, then a zoom call with her.
The long and short of it is, I'm to take a court reporting course that will prepare me for this job and eventually help me to get an AAERT certification. This is something that I had looked into myself, in the past, but without any sort of job offer on the table or incentive to shell out the $800 for the courses and $1000+ for the equipment out-of-pocket, I never did it. And then I got to go on tour again. But this time my new boss and this program director are offering the course to me for FREE. All *I* have to do is put in the effort and DO IT.
It's too good to pass up; even if everything implodes and I end up with no job again, at the very least the certification (for FREE) would give me a leg up for future work. Still, that meant after our meeting was over I had to spend my morning buying even MORE equipment, and downloading and installing software, and kind of coming to the realization that this is really happening, and I'm going to have to dedicate a significant chunk of time to these courses and to certifying just as quickly as I can, because otherwise it will be entirely my own fault if I don't have work this summer.
Part of me is excited and glad. For my Friends Only crowd, you guys know how much I stress about being entry-level value at every job, and how it hurts to not be contributing to our household more significantly (Jameson has the mortgage and pays ALL of the bills, and I am lucky if I can break $12k in earnings each year at the age of 40.) This could be my chance to break out of that, and have a skills set that can at LEAST get me above the poverty line ffs.
But part of me is freaking out about the NOW...about the money being spent on equipment that I don't yet know how to use, for a job that I don't entirely know how to do.
And part of me is sad and mourning the end of my current job...you know, the thing that I went to school for because I LOVE to do it, as opposed to the job I HAVE to do. Plus currently watching the adventure and freedom that I enjoy on tour coming to an end in real time.
This is all natural...all of the feelings of sadness and nostalgia and kind of inner heel-dragging to start this new job. I go through this at the end of every tour. And so Thursday turned into a day of processing those Big Feels. Which meant that I was depressed and sad, and after I had set up my new profile for the courses and installed the software, I sort of crashed back into bed, not even watching cat videos or anime to make me feel better, just reading a little and sleeping on and off.
At some point in there I ate, and got outside for a short mile-walk (not to the falls, I didn't want to go see such a beautiful place in the mood I was in.) There's nothing else to report, for Thursday. We had our show and it went well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday I managed to stay asleep until about 6:30am, yipee.
Got up early to start my new courses, but got distracted with finding jobs for a friend. Then partway through the first module, realized I'd forgotten to create a membership with AAERT and download their training manual, which I 100% need to complete ANY of the assignments in this course. So I did all of that, but the manual is emailed to you after the fact and I couldn’t complete the homework until that was received. Rookie mistake. Worked on Foodie Finds for Modesto while I waited, and when the manual hadn't showed up by lunchtime I braved the cold to walk to Kasa Taphouse. It was mid-70s when we arrived in Spokane and now it's 35°F and flurrying/raining. It is still beautiful here, but...sigh. I was looking forward to a last taste of spring weather, before the heat of Florida. Guess not.
This is a fairly new restaurant, with self-seating and QR code menus and a quick-serve environment that I liked a lot. It was pretty busy but I was seated right away and was able to get what I came for: the pork belly bowl. It's one of their more popular dishes and the pork belly is brined for two days, so they sometimes run out of it.
Two-day-brined and grilled pork belly with pickled carrot, radish, and cabbage slaw, tomato chutney, house curry sauce, fluffy house-recipe herbed pita bread, served over yellow basmati rice.
Very very good. I don't usually do pork belly because all the fat grosses me out, but there was actually a lot of meat on these slices and the flavor was awesome. Especially loved the tart pickled veggies with the sweet, warm tomato chutney and spicy creamy curry sauce, what a great combo of flavors. The bread, though, was the BEST. It was as fresh as humanly possible, incredibly light, like a little triangle cloud, not a trace of staleness. Absolutely loved it!
Walked to the grocery for some yogurts and berries for the next few days, and popped into some shops along the way like a record store, rocks & minerals store, and a kitchen supply store (bought nothing because now that I'm doing court reporting I'm REALLY poor, but it was fun to look!)
By the time I got back to the hotel my training manual had arrived, so I spent the rest of the day working on DCR modules. It looks like the hardest part is going to be memorizing terminology, structure of the courts, and history/info about US court and law. Outside of that, I'll just need to learn my equipment, how to set it up, and "best practices" which I feel will come a lot quicker than remembering what a "certiorari" is or a "amicus curiae." One nice thing is that someone has input all of this info into Quizlet, which has an app. So tonight during breaks in our show, instead of reading Wheel of Time, I took little quizzes and flash-carded myself.
When I can start this job depends heavily on when I feel capable enough to do it, so I'm cramming as much as I can...but I'm still on the last two weeks of tour and want to enjoy that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday...oooh we are making progress, I managed to sleep until 7:30!
After breakfast I spent a chunk of time completing a surprise assessment from a transcription company...one that I didn't apply to this year, and that sent me a 3-hour nightmare assessment last time I tried to apply for them. This time the assessment was MUCH more reasonable, so I did it, but not sure that I qualify or that they'd be willing to work with me on hours as I prepare for the other court reporting job.
Which is what I did next: spent hours reviewing the first set of flashcards, watching videos on materials, reading the same information in the manual, and reviewing the next set of flashcards and quizzes. Now I supposedly know what "in limine" means. I don't CARE what it means, but I KNOW what it means :p
The first show went fine. I checked on my caramels...you may remember that I brought two big bags with a total of 250-ish pieces:
...and this is what's left. I think there are 12 pieces in there. Good job everyone!
During this show our other Megan, who spells her name Maeghin, put up a disco version of "I Could Have Danced All Night." Pretty cute, and a nice memory for us :) I'm near the tail end of the video, see if you can catch me.
(CLICK HERE to watch)
Between shows the usual, walking back to the hotel and eating random stuff.
Evening show was also good, and it was DEFINITELY a sold out crowd. There was a really adorable moment when "I Could Have Danced All Night" started; the audience made this kind of "Aaaah!" sighing sound and then applauded so enthusiastically when Eliza started singing. It is indeed a beloved number. And I couldn't believe how people were SCREAMING cheers after "Get Me to the Church," like whooping and everything like they wanted to be involved in the bar scene haha.
After the show I stepped out of the stage door and was blown away by the massive amount of people exiting the theatre. It was a good one!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday I was up at 7, breakfast, working on my DCR training.
That and Foodie Finds for Modesto was pretty much it until it was time for shows.
I don't really have anything to report...both shows were just fine. We were all really looking forward to the golden day on Monday, so perhaps we were a bit distracted, but not to any detriment. And it's still load out, so after we finished I packed up my things as usual and went upstairs to sign our wall tag here. It's been up for several days so for once most people have signed it. Can you spot my initials?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow is Monday, a lovely golden day of no shows and no travel here in Spokane.
My plans are 50/50 chores/fun, so we will see what I actually accomplish from this list:
- Laundry
- DCR modules/training
- Thrifting at the local Goodwill
- Tacos at Cochinita
- Groceries to bring to Yakima (grocery options are super limited there)
- More DCR modules/training
- Some minor day drinking (the lavender honey cider I bought earlier)
- Seeing the falls one last time
- Riding or at least seeing the Looff Carousel
The morning was spent nervously waiting for my new boss at my new court reporting job to call, then when he didn't I realized he probably wanted me to get with a court reporting instructor he'd referred me to yesterday instead. I texted to check if that was the case and it was. So another hour of nervous waiting, then a zoom call with her.
The long and short of it is, I'm to take a court reporting course that will prepare me for this job and eventually help me to get an AAERT certification. This is something that I had looked into myself, in the past, but without any sort of job offer on the table or incentive to shell out the $800 for the courses and $1000+ for the equipment out-of-pocket, I never did it. And then I got to go on tour again. But this time my new boss and this program director are offering the course to me for FREE. All *I* have to do is put in the effort and DO IT.
It's too good to pass up; even if everything implodes and I end up with no job again, at the very least the certification (for FREE) would give me a leg up for future work. Still, that meant after our meeting was over I had to spend my morning buying even MORE equipment, and downloading and installing software, and kind of coming to the realization that this is really happening, and I'm going to have to dedicate a significant chunk of time to these courses and to certifying just as quickly as I can, because otherwise it will be entirely my own fault if I don't have work this summer.
Part of me is excited and glad. For my Friends Only crowd, you guys know how much I stress about being entry-level value at every job, and how it hurts to not be contributing to our household more significantly (Jameson has the mortgage and pays ALL of the bills, and I am lucky if I can break $12k in earnings each year at the age of 40.) This could be my chance to break out of that, and have a skills set that can at LEAST get me above the poverty line ffs.
But part of me is freaking out about the NOW...about the money being spent on equipment that I don't yet know how to use, for a job that I don't entirely know how to do.
And part of me is sad and mourning the end of my current job...you know, the thing that I went to school for because I LOVE to do it, as opposed to the job I HAVE to do. Plus currently watching the adventure and freedom that I enjoy on tour coming to an end in real time.
This is all natural...all of the feelings of sadness and nostalgia and kind of inner heel-dragging to start this new job. I go through this at the end of every tour. And so Thursday turned into a day of processing those Big Feels. Which meant that I was depressed and sad, and after I had set up my new profile for the courses and installed the software, I sort of crashed back into bed, not even watching cat videos or anime to make me feel better, just reading a little and sleeping on and off.
At some point in there I ate, and got outside for a short mile-walk (not to the falls, I didn't want to go see such a beautiful place in the mood I was in.) There's nothing else to report, for Thursday. We had our show and it went well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday I managed to stay asleep until about 6:30am, yipee.
Got up early to start my new courses, but got distracted with finding jobs for a friend. Then partway through the first module, realized I'd forgotten to create a membership with AAERT and download their training manual, which I 100% need to complete ANY of the assignments in this course. So I did all of that, but the manual is emailed to you after the fact and I couldn’t complete the homework until that was received. Rookie mistake. Worked on Foodie Finds for Modesto while I waited, and when the manual hadn't showed up by lunchtime I braved the cold to walk to Kasa Taphouse. It was mid-70s when we arrived in Spokane and now it's 35°F and flurrying/raining. It is still beautiful here, but...sigh. I was looking forward to a last taste of spring weather, before the heat of Florida. Guess not.
This is a fairly new restaurant, with self-seating and QR code menus and a quick-serve environment that I liked a lot. It was pretty busy but I was seated right away and was able to get what I came for: the pork belly bowl. It's one of their more popular dishes and the pork belly is brined for two days, so they sometimes run out of it.
Two-day-brined and grilled pork belly with pickled carrot, radish, and cabbage slaw, tomato chutney, house curry sauce, fluffy house-recipe herbed pita bread, served over yellow basmati rice.
Very very good. I don't usually do pork belly because all the fat grosses me out, but there was actually a lot of meat on these slices and the flavor was awesome. Especially loved the tart pickled veggies with the sweet, warm tomato chutney and spicy creamy curry sauce, what a great combo of flavors. The bread, though, was the BEST. It was as fresh as humanly possible, incredibly light, like a little triangle cloud, not a trace of staleness. Absolutely loved it!
Walked to the grocery for some yogurts and berries for the next few days, and popped into some shops along the way like a record store, rocks & minerals store, and a kitchen supply store (bought nothing because now that I'm doing court reporting I'm REALLY poor, but it was fun to look!)
By the time I got back to the hotel my training manual had arrived, so I spent the rest of the day working on DCR modules. It looks like the hardest part is going to be memorizing terminology, structure of the courts, and history/info about US court and law. Outside of that, I'll just need to learn my equipment, how to set it up, and "best practices" which I feel will come a lot quicker than remembering what a "certiorari" is or a "amicus curiae." One nice thing is that someone has input all of this info into Quizlet, which has an app. So tonight during breaks in our show, instead of reading Wheel of Time, I took little quizzes and flash-carded myself.
When I can start this job depends heavily on when I feel capable enough to do it, so I'm cramming as much as I can...but I'm still on the last two weeks of tour and want to enjoy that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday...oooh we are making progress, I managed to sleep until 7:30!
After breakfast I spent a chunk of time completing a surprise assessment from a transcription company...one that I didn't apply to this year, and that sent me a 3-hour nightmare assessment last time I tried to apply for them. This time the assessment was MUCH more reasonable, so I did it, but not sure that I qualify or that they'd be willing to work with me on hours as I prepare for the other court reporting job.
Which is what I did next: spent hours reviewing the first set of flashcards, watching videos on materials, reading the same information in the manual, and reviewing the next set of flashcards and quizzes. Now I supposedly know what "in limine" means. I don't CARE what it means, but I KNOW what it means :p
The first show went fine. I checked on my caramels...you may remember that I brought two big bags with a total of 250-ish pieces:
...and this is what's left. I think there are 12 pieces in there. Good job everyone!
During this show our other Megan, who spells her name Maeghin, put up a disco version of "I Could Have Danced All Night." Pretty cute, and a nice memory for us :) I'm near the tail end of the video, see if you can catch me.
(CLICK HERE to watch)
Between shows the usual, walking back to the hotel and eating random stuff.
Evening show was also good, and it was DEFINITELY a sold out crowd. There was a really adorable moment when "I Could Have Danced All Night" started; the audience made this kind of "Aaaah!" sighing sound and then applauded so enthusiastically when Eliza started singing. It is indeed a beloved number. And I couldn't believe how people were SCREAMING cheers after "Get Me to the Church," like whooping and everything like they wanted to be involved in the bar scene haha.
After the show I stepped out of the stage door and was blown away by the massive amount of people exiting the theatre. It was a good one!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday I was up at 7, breakfast, working on my DCR training.
That and Foodie Finds for Modesto was pretty much it until it was time for shows.
I don't really have anything to report...both shows were just fine. We were all really looking forward to the golden day on Monday, so perhaps we were a bit distracted, but not to any detriment. And it's still load out, so after we finished I packed up my things as usual and went upstairs to sign our wall tag here. It's been up for several days so for once most people have signed it. Can you spot my initials?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow is Monday, a lovely golden day of no shows and no travel here in Spokane.
My plans are 50/50 chores/fun, so we will see what I actually accomplish from this list:
- Laundry
- DCR modules/training
- Thrifting at the local Goodwill
- Tacos at Cochinita
- Groceries to bring to Yakima (grocery options are super limited there)
- More DCR modules/training
- Some minor day drinking (the lavender honey cider I bought earlier)
- Seeing the falls one last time
- Riding or at least seeing the Looff Carousel
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