Typical Day
Beep beep beep. That's the sound of Mary's alarm at 6:30AM. She walks over and turns it off; as always, Mary was up five minutes before.
She's good like that. Mary knows that to be good at what you do, you have to be awake for it, otherwise you miss something. And what Mary does is stenography—every day she writes the words that future generations will use to guide them, in business or government, in courtrooms and classroom. Mary's job is to make history—or at least make sure it's written down. And she can't miss a thing. She takes this job very seriously.
To start her day, Mary works out. She's going to be sitting for eight hours or so today, hunched over a small keyboard-like machine and typing everything everyone says all day. She's been doing this long enough to know she's gotta stay loose and limber.
That reminds her; she double-checks that her travel seat cushion is in her bag. Just in case. She hates when she forgets it.
Next, it's time to wake the children. Mary has two, a boy and a girl, early teens. Their names are unimportant (not to Mary, just to you). The important thing is, she has kids, and so she has to have time to spend with them. Thankfully, her job is pretty great, because it gives her the ability to be home with them when she needs to be. That includes being around in the morning to wake them—if she doesn't get them up, they ain't getting up (amirite?).
Today she has a little extra time after the kids leave to herself. It's Tuesday, so she'll be recording all the notes at the local council office. One of the perks is that they don't start until 10:30AM. She reads a little bit more of her novel while she finishes some house chores.
When it's time to leave, Mary makes sure she has all the important things: car keys, wallet, seat cushion (triple check). Finally, she grabs the most important item—the briefcase with her stenotype machine. It is her lifeline, her constant companion, the tool with which she does most of the work. Trying to do her job with only a pen and paper would be like trying to play a basketball game with a hockey puck.
Once upon a time, Mary was a courtroom stenographer. Typcially, she worked the civil cases. That meant she transcribed hundreds of family disputes and misdemeanor offenses. It was a great job, sure, and it gave her loads of experience—not to mention a pretty hefty paycheck. But after ten years of divorces and custody battles, Mary decided it was time she went into business for herself.
Thanks to her now stellar reputation as a reliable court stenographer, Mary's business is booming. Nowadays, she works for the highest bidder, who this morning is the city government. She works on the taxpayer dime covering public hearings and council meetings three or four days a week, supplementing her income with the odd transcription or broadcast job.
Mary walks into the hearing and says her quick hellos before she sets herself up at the stenographer desk in the corner. She opens the machine, puts the comfy pillow down on the hard wooden chair, and opens the bottle of water placed lovingly on the desk. The pledge is spoken, the room is seated, and the meeting is called to order.
It's go time. Mary starts typing and doesn't stop for hours. If you were to watch her go, you'd be reminded of a piano player who seems to have music flowing naturally through the fingers. Mary's music is the sounds of the meeting. Every word, every sentence, phrase, utterance, chuckle, sniffle, um, uh, wha, uh-huh, and nuh-uh goes into the official notes.
The twenty-two keys of her transcriptional instrument create a phonetic jumble of nonsense that only Mary can read. If she died right now, every second of the meeting would be lost forever. Mary likes that.
Meeting is adjourned and notes are translated. Work ends around 4:00PM, so Mary decides to pick up groceries on her way home. Tuesdays are nice because politicians don't really like to work full days. The next couple days she'll be freelancing at a conference that likes to use her services whenever they hold meetings in town. Those can run a little longer, but Mary was the one who said yes. She likes the variety.
At home, Mary gets the low-down about the kids' day as they enjoy dinner together. They're teenagers, so there's a lot of drama involved (obvi). She spends the evening watching a movie on Netflix with the kids. She gets to bed around 10:00PM, reading some more of her book as she falls alseep. It's a courtroom novel...ah the good ol' days.