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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Yes.

I'm alive. I swear I am.

Life is good, great, grand, excellent! It has been a really REALLY good month. I have gone out on 22 jobs and have made GOOD money and stayed QUITE busy. I can't remember the last time I worked so hard.

The first two weeks I had some scheduling conflicts and couldn't work as often as I wanted to. When I was back from vacation, I only got one job in a whole week! I was pretty discouraged. However, the next week things seemed to pick up. I've had at least one job every day for 2.5 straight weeks and I'm up to my ears in pages. I've had two rushes in the past week and took my first medical expert witness tonight. I don't feel like I'm ready to do medicals a lot - I'm glad it was only 50 minutes today and that the expert was "just" an OBGYN - and I'm SO grateful for the sweet lawyer who gave me a list of terms that would come up - but for the most part, today's job went well and it gave me a boost of confidence. The agency I am working with has been great, and I've gotten plenty of work. I told them that I was ready to work as hard as I could and they just keep throwing things at me! It has been a really good (and FAST) month.

Can I just say how much I love living and working in DC, too? Of my 22 jobs, I have walked to 14 of them, taken the metro to 3, and driven to 5. I get good exercise and am able to see the city. I have to wonder how many people think I'm a flight attendant, though, with my constantly rolling my case around!

I'm so glad I went through school and finally finished some sort of schooling. My husband had watched me switch from major to major before I finally heard about court reporting and decided, "I want to do that." I really wanted him to see me finish something, and I finally did! I love being a court reporter!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Europe Trip - Budapest Day 5

May 30th, 2009, dawned early for us in Budapest, Hungary. Grandpa Lazslo had bought me an awesome yellow skirt that I really wanted to wear, so I tried it on that morning and we prepared to go out. Luckily, we checked out the window before we left and realized it would probably rain throughout the day, so I laid the yellow skirt to rest for another day.Don't ask me what I did with my hair that day. This was one of the only days I had with a big mirror and my hair ends up looking all crooked!We were lucky that our hotel was really close to a big hub metro, and this was the scene that we saw every time we were going back to the hotel/leaving to go somewhere. It was rather extravagant. Almost like a mall.We started off the day going up to find the Vajdahunyad Castle and happened upon a very cool horse race track area where they were preparing for a race later that day, a festival, and a huge market where they had the best looking candies ever. There was also a pretty park that we walked through where we found this house that was completely covered in moss.We went to Széchenyi Baths in Budapest, and this place was awesome. The building was vast in size and the architecture was so intricate and detailed, it was really beautiful. That made for a very relaxing morning!After the baths, we walked around a bit and happened upon a festival that was going on close to Vajdahunyad Castle.
It was a lot of fun, and we ended up buying a green necklace/earrings set (handmade), a scarf, and a magnet at the market area. It was great to just walk around and be surrounded by people that were bartering and just having a grand time.There was another little market area going on in this beautiful building.We took a walk down Vaci Street, which is famous for its shops and touristy atmosphere.We took some side streets every once in a while just to explore a bit more and happened upon a wedding outside a beautiful church.Later that day we went to a different part of town to see the Great Synagogue. Then we made our way to St. Stephen's Basilica. You can see that it had started raining by this point, though it was still fun to walk around the city.Our dinner that night was at a cute little restaurant that was tucked away on a side street. These babies are paprika scones and were DELICIOUS. I had 2.5 of them.The awesome dinner - this food was SO good and SO cheap. I want to go back just for this food.Dinner was even better because of my fantastic company. Who can refuse that smile?!We tried really hard to make it to the bridge by our hotel to watch the sun set but were just a little too late. The sky still looked pretty awesome, anyway. We walked over by Parliament that night as well, which was beautiful in the dark.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Europe Trip - Budapest Day 4

Friday morning we woke up early to make the 1.5 hour drive in to Budapest. It was a great day spent sight-seeing, learning about Lazslo's childhood, meeting some of his friends, and enjoying our last day with him on our trip.
Budapest was simply beautiful and I couldn't get enough of it. It was so green, had mountains, and felt quaint all in the same breath. We parked the car on the sidewalk (as everyone else had done!) and took the street car everywhere. We walked around for a bit in the Castle District/Gellert Hill areas and ran into some really beautiful sights.One of the coolest things about touring the city with Lazslo was getting to know him better through his stories. We were able to go inside his childhood school to take a peek - it is a gorgeous building!When we were walking we saw a lot of beautiful views. Parliament is pretty breathtaking, and it was cool to see Lady Liberty from most places in the city. Sadly, we didn't hike up to her because we went on another hike up to see Fisherman's Bastion, which was incredible. It was quite the hike up, though!It was worth it for the view! Wow! I loved Budapest's steep hills and old feel.
Can you tell who had possession of the camera most of the time?!This was pretty much the cutest thing I had ever seen, so I had to take a picture of it. They had awesome little shops in Budapest that we enjoyed browsing through.

After hiking/walking around forever, we decided to grab lunch and ended up at this cool place that Lazslo used to frequent with some of his childhood friends. We were able to meet a few of his friends, which was great fun! I ordered chicken and Derek ordered duck and somehow our orders were switched without us realizing it. I like duck!

Eventually we found a hotel just a few blocks down from the Danube River that we stayed in for Friday - Saturday nights and we were able to rest after walking around for most of the day. It was sad to say goodbye to Lazslo - we had such a great time with him!
The view from our hotel at ground level.
When we were exploring later in the day, Derek found this awesomoe convertible Smartcar. Isn't that the coolest little car?

The bridge over the Danube at night.
It was a beautiful night and we had a fantastic day!
Graffiti was a big problem in most of the cities we visited, but especially in Budapest. The street car dropped us off and when we were going up a staircase to get to the bridge, we saw this. I don't like graffiti, but what are the odds of us finding Derek's name with the correct spelling?!

I'm DONE!

Most of you have already seen the news elsewhere, but...I'm done with school! I have finally finished my speeds and can start working in less than two weeks!! I passed my first 225 on August 23, the second on August 27, and the final one on August 30. I submitted my two weeks notice to my current job and my last day is September 11. We are going to South Carolina that weekend to pick up Derek's new car (for another post), and will be back the evening of the 14th. I can start going out on jobs September 15!! I am getting started on paperwork with the agency I will be an Independent Contractor for, ordered my professional software (ouch - $$$), and have a billion questions for my teacher tomorrow at my graduation ceremony. I have to order some supplies, but mostly now I'm just playing the waiting game to be able to start. I have plenty to do at my job to help make the transition smooth and this weekend we're going to Virginia Beach...the next two weeks will fly by, and then I'll get to tell you all about my first job as a court reporter!!

Total Tests Passed: 81
Time Spent Speedbuilding: 1 year, 3 months, and about a week
Time Spent in School, Part-time: 2 years, 5 days

Thursday, August 27, 2009

School Update

It has been a while since I gave an update on school, and I have a good one!

"You passed your first 225 Q&A with an awesome score of 96.08. Any day now and we have to graduate you."

Two tests left! Ahhhh!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Europe Trip - Budapest Day 3

Thursday in Budapest was our relaxing day. We slept in late and just generally hung around the house all day. We needed clean clothes, so we hand-washed our clothes and hung them out to dry on Lazslo's line outside. Lazslo has a keyboard and so we broke it out and I was able to play a bunch of songs on it after Derek fixed it. Since he had fixed Lazslo's computer earlier in our visit, we got to listen to some of Lazslo's favorite jazz tunes off his computer - that was very relaxing and a fun time. We also got to enjoy some of Lazslo's own music - he plays the saxophone very well, and it was awesome to sit and watch him play with such expression and soul. His place was in the country, really close to some breathtaking views, so Derek and I took a hike for about an hour just to explore the area. Later in the evening we also went on a hike with Lazslo and had some great conversation while enjoying the beautiful scenery. We had pig for dinner and part of it was just straight up fat that we ate. It was actually pretty good. We hit the sack early so we could get up and make it to Budapest the next morning at a decent time.
This is a collage of the land - upper left is an outhouse, upper right is the "garage door," if you will, made out of bamboo! Lower left is the house, middle is where we slept, and lower right is the outdoor shower (which no one used while we were there - too cold - heated by the sun!).These beauties were on the bush across the street from Lazslo's place - every morning we would wake up and look out the window and these would be the first things we saw!This cute green/blue lizard scurried across the yard while we were out chatting. He was a quicker booger, and made me miss Lance.
Another piece of proof of the beauty of Hungary - this bush is growing in Lazslo's yard - the flower was so heavy that as soon as Derek put it back down it hung flower down and looked like it was bowing its head in prayer. They were so big!

The Past Week

It has been an interesting week. Gratefully, it started off good last Thursday, with a Washington Nationals baseball game provided by work that Derek was able to come to (in the middle of the day!), where we actually WON! By the second inning, we were down 0-6. Yeah, I didn't have high hopes. However, as soon as Derek arrived at the bottom of the second, things turned around and the home runs started churning. We saw a ton of them, and we ended up winning 12-8, I think, was the final score.

We made it home and I left to go to class. It only took me about 55 minutes to get there, and that was with stopping for gas and stopping at Wendy's for food. It was incredible! Traffic was a beautiful thing that night, and the stars were out for me that evening. I finally passed my last 200 Jury Charge, which puts me at 3 tests left!! Cross your fingers for me, I'm going to try my hardest to get out within 6 weeks. Maybe I just won't sleep anymore...then maybe I will practice my fingers enough so that they'll move as fast as I need them to. The past month I've been practicing at 240-250 wpm, a painful thing for Little Ms. Perfectionist, but on my internship this week the court reporter told me that was too slow. I needed to go EVEN FASTER - closer to 300 wpm. I explained that I would bawl my eyes out every night if I was forced to practice those high speeds, and she told me it was necessary. I don't have practice dictation that goes up that fast, but I do have Literary at 220, Jury Charge at 230, and Q&A at 280, which I have practiced for the past 2 nights. The first night I cried at the 220 Literary (these things are so hard, they might as well be 300 wpm!), but then I stopped wimping out. I'm proud to report there were no tears last night, but already my ears are adjusting to those high speeds. I can't get close to that speed, but I'm working my hardest at it and know that the effort will pay off, eventually. And if it doesn't, I have the email address of the court reporter who recommended it and I will let her know that she cost me great heartache. Or, I could get out as fast as possible and then I will email her my heartfelt thanks. Here's to hoping for the latter.

Friday was the beginning of the end of the goodness of the week (with a few bright moments poking through the downpour of badness). Derek saw some commercial about a great deal on a brand new car, so we called the dealership and decided to head out there to check it out. As soon as we got there, we explained to the guy helping us that we didn't NEED a new car, but if the deal was as good as it said on TV, we would buy on the spot. We should have left as soon as we found out that that good deal was only possible if you qualified for cash for clunkers. He somehow convinced us that there were other things we qualified for, so we proceeded to go through 2 hours of looking at cars, test-driving a car, and negotiations. He kept us waiting for 20 minutes while he was "talking his boss down" so he could "get us a good deal." He comes back in, and you know what he does? Points at a piece of paper and says, "These are your monthly payment options. Which payment would best suit your monthly budget?" Derek and I looked at each, there was a long pregnant pause, and we both looked at the guy and blurted, "Are you kidding? What is the price of the car?!" He didn't even tell us the price! Turns out it was definitely wasted time (always a bummer in the life of busy bees), and he didn't talk his boss down at all, didn't "work his magic" with getting us a good deal for our Toyota on trade-in, and we didn't qualify for the other things he was talking up. My take on it? BOO! We were completely up front with you the whole time and you completely tried to scam us. He apparently didn't understand that our desire to get a car that was $8,000 was the TOTAL PRICE. He tried to justify it by saying that we would only have to finance about $8,000 after the trade-in and downpayment. The downpayment was going to be $4,000! Hello! Funny how we spent the evening trying to explain this to the man, who apparently never got it, and I explained it once to my mom over the phone (not face to face with hand gestures and fingers to visually describe how much money we wanted to spend) and she laughed out loud at the man's gall. I guess he did his job well. The monthly payments really didn't look that bad - but when you account for the fact that you will be making that same payment every month for three, four, or even five years, you pay thousands more for a car than the original price. If we weren't such sticklers (read: cheap-os), we might have been convinced. But, we really don't need a new car. So, our trusty Toyota will continue to reign as chief vehicle in the Scheer family until we leave DC and need another car, or until it dies (crosses fingers that this will be after living in DC).

So we left the dealership at 8:45pm, starving, and we were heading towards Kohl's so we could take advantage of their sale that coincided with Virginia's tax free holiday. Not five minutes after leaving the dealership, we got pulled over. Yep. Derek was very respectful to the officer, who seemingly was in a good mood because he ended up giving us just a warning. Thanks, Officer! That was the start of the good part of the night. We ate some food and then went shopping. I got 3 shirts and Derek got 5, and we got an electric bread knife. We spent more money than I care to admit to, but I justify it by the fact that Derek really needed button-down short sleeve shirts he could wear to work, and I have slowly been transitioning my wardrobe to court reporting-appropiate attire.

Saturday we went berry picking in Virginia, and ended up with 4 pints of blackberries and about 6 pounds of peaches. It was a lot of fun. Homework/practicing ensued, and then our brother in law came over for dinner. His family is out of town for a few weeks and he had just rode 67 miles in a bike race, so we wanted to treat him, the poor guy! Jake, my almost 19 year old brother, has been preparing for several months to get his papers in to serve a mission for our church, and he received his call letter on Saturday. We set up a time for everyone to meet around the kitchen table at home, including Grandma, and Brian and I were both called. Jake opened the letter and read, word for word without jumping to the good parts, exactly what the letter said. He enters the MTC on November 11, 2009, and will be serving in the Australia Melbourne East Mission for 24 months. He will be speaking Mandarin Chinese. This will be quite a feat for him, but I know that he will be blessed for going on a mission (as will all of his family - thanks, Jake!) and he will bless the lives of many people in Australia. I had trouble keeping my emotions intact on the phone call, my heart was bursting with pride (still is, as I write this all teary-eyed), and was sad I wasn't there with him to give him a big hug. Luckily, I will be blessed to be able to go see him before he leaves.

Is this the longest post ever yet? It has been a week, I tell you.

Saturday night after our BIL left we resumed homework/practicing (our new normal routine) and my head, which had started hurting while I was preparing dinner, proceeded to continuously throb until I couldn't do anything anymore. I went to bed, thinking I could sleep it off. I woke up once and discovered the migraine had progressed to my entire head instead of being concentrated on the right side, but I just tried to go back to sleep. I woke up again a few hours later and it hurt to open my eyes. I walked around my apartment blindly trying to find my purse to get some medicine to take, which I finally did, and it hurt to open my jaw to swallow some water with my pills. Now, it as 4 am, my migraine had fully encompassed my entire head, eyes, jaw, and my neck. I got back in bed and Derek asked the magic words: "Are you okay, babe?" I just broke down crying. I can't remember the last time I had such a horrible migraine. It was the kind that not only does it just hurt everywhere, but you want to puke, too. What a night. Luckily, when I woke up for real in the morning, it was gone. It was a rough night.

Sunday I found out I passed my last jury charge test. That was good news. Church was good, as was class. I was pretty bummed the whole day, though, because our bikes were stolen Saturday night/Sunday morning. That's right, as I was suffering with my migraine, some losers were hopping our 8 foot fence to steal our bikes. We're still pretty upset about it, understandbly so, I think. We're planning on going to a thrift store this weekend to see if we can pick up some cheap bike so we can at least have one around, maybe two if there is a good deal.

Monday was just a hard day for me emotionally for some reason. I've been stressing myself out to the max, and some days just make me sad. The rest of the week has been okay. I'm hoping to do really well at class tonight. I've been working on 225 for 6 weeks now - not quite ready to start passing tests, but I can see that I've made a lot of progress in 6 weeks. Derek is working on his finals this week and then is off for 4ish weeks. We're looking forward to that. Sorry this sort of turned into a huge journal entry. It has been a trying week, but things are looking up, and the weekend is almost here. Let's hope it is better than last weekend (though you can't top having a brother open his mission call!!). Hope everyone is doing well.