Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Most of the time when I blog . . .

Most of the time when I blog, I like to sit down beforehand and think a little bit about my topic and what I want to say about it.

With this entry, however, I will be employing an oft-used technique known as "pulling it out of my butt."

It occurs to me that the better I get, the better I have to get.

When I was satisfied with my career of plain vanilla deps, I could go a week without touching my machine (when business was slow) and come right back without any appreciable drop in skill.

When I became a freelance freelancer and an RMR, I noticed that during slow weeks, I really ought to get in at least a couple of days' practice here & there, or my speed will suffer a bit.

When I began doing CART work, if I missed one weekday of writing or practice, my speed dropped. But I could still rest on Sundays.

Now I'm doing speed contests and CART, and if I miss ONE SINGLE DAY of at LEAST a few minutes' practice, my fingers all turn into thumbs the next day.

I didn't set out to turn this into a Magnum Steno promo, but I'm the type that if I don't have a gym membership, I won't work out. I have unused weights in my house, and I have the physical stamina of a bag of wet laundry. When my husband and I belonged to the health club, we'd weight train three to four days a week. I had no joint pain, and I entered a powerlifting competition (and won a couple of trophies). When my band did traveling gigs, I could easily lift the big ol' bass amp that would have usually been moved by a man. But once we had to cancel the membership, pfffffft.

So I have my membership in this steno health club, and I like to log on to see what the trainer has to say. And I get faster and better.

But if I skip one day--ONE DAY--my writing goes to poopy. This is my experience.

So I go to the club and work out.

And maybe someday I'll get a trophy.

And I can write it when attorneys talk really fast.

Good day.