Feast and Famine

So my chosen profession is that of a court reporter, or as some know us, a stenographer. In Texas, where I attended college, we were known as court reporters. Then I moved to Boston to work my first year as a reporter, and we were known as stenographers there. Anyhoo...[crickets].

So yesterday was a fitful day for me. I was actually caught up. You're NEVER caught up in this profession. Once you finish one job, there's always another that's been sitting on your desk for almost two weeks, staring at you like a big plate of Mexican food, ready to put you to sleep...but without the gas. And since everything in this profession is a standard two-week turnaround, your job which was regular turnaround has now turned into a rush status, thereby always keeping the level of adrenaline suitable.

Well, in my panic of being caught up, I began researching online jobs. I pondered what would happen to me if I didn't receive a job in another week, month, even a year. I had trouble sleeping last night. I felt as though I should get out of bed and get back on the computer, sending out work requests to various court reporting firms, doing everything I can to drum up business. Such is life as a self-employed person.

So now it's the lunch hour today. I felt dread in my stomach this morning, knowing I was facing a morning with no work, and then the phone began ringing. Now I've got seven jobs waiting to be done. Two of my jobs which were on hold called in, and I had five other hearings come in from another firm, two of them rushes. In one morning, I'm so swamped it'll take me days to dig out. I love it.