Chair Saga

I'm starting to use the Goodwill for the first time, really. For a while I was sitting without using the back rest at all, and that's made my back hurt, so I'm trying something different. Whenever I try to sit with my back against the back of a chair, I can't seem to "reach" the steno keyboard properly, even just putting the LS on my lap. But this chair is pretty adjustable, so I tilted the back all the way forward. I had to take the LS off the tripod, but I've written with it that way a couple of times, and it seems to be working okay. I don't know if it's making my back feel any better, and it definitely feels weird to write that way, but at least I am resting my back on something.

I wanted to get a fancy ergonomic chair, something that would be really good. I thought about an Aeron chair, but I've seen a lot of people not liking those. They're also insanely expensive, and it might not fit, and if it breaks it's expensive to repair. I went to a showroom and tried out some Lifeform chairs. They're also anywhere from $1-3k. They were pretty comfy, but they didn't do anything to make my arm feel better, so I decided they weren't worth it.

I think it must've been an NCRA newsletter where I saw the Soma Court Reporter Chair listed; or maybe someone on depoman posted a link to the newsletter. Either way, I remembered it, and looked into it. I figured it would be the best chair, since I could use my tripod with it. After a couple weeks of thinking about it, I decided to get it. I called the two Soma dealers in my state, and after a couple more weeks of going back and forth with them, basically came to the conclusion that neither one of them could help me out.

So I called Soma directly, and talked to a really nice guy who got all the different components picked out for me. He said if I picked up the chair at one of the dealers, they could adjust it to fit me there, and I'd be able to swap out a backrest or something if it wasn't right. That sounded pretty awesome, so he emailed them. Two weeks went by and I didn't hear anything, so I called him back, and he called them, and they called me. They sent out a "proposal" for the chair, but it was missing the cutout. So I called the local place, and they said they'd check with the Soma guy.

A week later, I called the local place again. The representative said she emailed Soma twice, but they must be on vacation. Right. So I called Soma myself, and he said I don't need the court reporter cutout because I'm getting a split seat, and there's a space for the tripod. I went along with it and called the local place back, and officially placed my order. I think the standard wait time is about 5-6 weeks.

I'm a little concerned about the lack of a cutout, though. I wasn't sure the cutout was going to be deep enough to begin with, because I like my steno machine really close. Looking at pictures, it seems like the split is even more shallow. I don't know what the point of getting an $800 chair was if it's not even going to have the cutout. But hopefully all the adjustments, and the fact that it was under $1k, will make it worth it. It's got to be better than the two chairs I'm using right now.