Horses

     I have been trying to use the Report-It.  I think it is probably the most frustrating thing I have ever done in my life, even worse than getting used to the LS, which took about three months, and which I had just barely accomplished when I got the Report-It.  I really just want to throw it out the window, and then go outside and attack it.  I have tried so many positions of the Report-It and the writer and my arms and everything.  I can never tell what I need to do to fix it, and I’m using all of my practice time on adjusting it instead of practicing, so I’m losing major time on that front.  Every time I leave it in the best position I could figure out, and then the next day I come back to it and it’s totally wrong and I have to start all over again.

     Today I had someone help me so I could make sure my elbows were at a right angle, so at least I have that figured out now.  I’m not giving up, though.  I have to make it work, because now that I’ve been using it, it hurts more not to use it, although I can’t write hardly at all while using it.  I have the arm position down I guess, I just need to get the machine in the right spot for where my arms are, but I’m not used to writing like this at all.

     I think I’ve officially given up my dream of taking the Caption Masters class in July.  I didn’t realize how horrible my writing had become.  It’s kind of ironic that if I hadn’t done what the instructor suggested, I would probably be fast enough for the class by now.  But since I added the asterisks, I can’t write anything anymore, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to.  Originally, I was planning to be done with school by August at the latest.  I wonder if I would be fast enough if I hadn’t changed so many things?  After I didn’t make it into the Caption Masters class in January, I figured I’d be at 180 for sure in a couple of months, and I’d get into the class for July, and finish it in November, and be ready to work then. 

     But now that’s not going to happen, so I guess I just don’t have a timeline at all, and the best I can hope for is that it doesn’t take me seven years like it does most people.  The average time to become is court reporter is five years, and then people usually spend at least a couple years doing that before they can caption.  It’s so hard going through and trying to learn to do everything perfectly.  Sometimes I just wish I could quit and find something to work towards where I could see actual progress, and have a timeline, and know that I was on the right track to getting done by a certain date.

     I’ve been trying to sound things out when I fingerspell them, so hopefully that’s a good strategy, because I’m getting better at it.  I made it halfway through the drill book, well, more than halfway by now because I’m on exercise 70, but that’s just depressing because all I seem to be doing is discovering all the finger positions I never quite mastered and am going to have problems with.