The Secret Life of Hiccups

A hiccup came to me today.
It came again.
And again.
It would not leave me.
Work was quiet.
I was loud.
These are the “I swear it will work” remedies people shared:

Drink warm water through a paper towel.

Stand on your head.

Hold your breath

Guzzle a bunch of water.

Stick fingers in your ears. (Did not specify if it was supposed to be mine or someone else's)

Eat peanut butter.

Make yourself throw up. (I refuse to do this one)

My official conclusion: They are all crap.

Insert hiccup here.

Christmas Bells

I HEARD the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"


Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

chili party

I've been back at it. This time my creation was a pot of good ol' Mexican style chili. It's a recipe I've made many times before as it is a bit of a standard originating from my mom. To accompany the chili, I tried my hand at Jalapeno Cornbread. The cornbread was a hit, if I do say so myself. The hard to please, DJK, was exceptionally complimentary of it. He can be quoted as saying it was the best he ever had. Success!!!
Shout outs to Jameslphoto for yet again photographing my latest eats.

Mexican Deliciousness

The matriarch of the family (and in my opinion, the ultimate chef) has been here snow-birding it in the desert. The timing couldn't be more ideal, because for some time now I've been thinking I really should force myself to cook and learn a few things in the kitchen department. What better person to learn from than the grand master. So in an effort to up my domesticity, I've decided to cook my way through the family cookbook, so to speak. Attempt to learn some of the more loved (and more unusual) recipes in our collection. I must warn you, our family cookbook isn't a flimsy little pamphlet of papers. I come from a seriously big food-loving clan, so it is no surprise we have a seriously stellar cookbook too.
First up, I chose the beloved recipe, enchiladas. My grandma first learned this recipe of stacked enchiladas while they were stationed over in Germany. Grandpa would always bring people home for dinner, so for Easter a group of bachelors also stationed there came for dinner, but told Grandma they were going to cook for her this time...and this was the tasty meal they created and served. Apparently, they learned the recipe while stationed in Texas. This stacked version requires a giant mound of onions, (we chopped 5 onions for only 1 tray of enchiladas) so prepare to cry your way through the preparation. However, the cheesy, bubbly yumminess at the end is well worth the lengthy preparation process. So for my first try, I think it was pretty successful. I learned a few tweaks here and there that I should have made, but all in all, I think the tummies I fed, were pretty darn happy.

Bon appétit!

Recently, I was flipping through pictures on my phone and discovered I had quite a few of delicious looking eats. I’m not quite sure at what point my “need” to photograph my food turned into a mini-obsession, but I somehow think it might stem a little from my food-loving family tree. Because I’m not quite sure what else I am supposed to do with all my delicious looking photographs, I will present them to you in hopes of making you more hungry than when you were a moment ago. Did it work?

Excuses

After much neglect, I will attempt to update my followers that by now are without a doubt dwindling by the wayside due to my lack of posts. Because I am both currently lacking creativity and (mostly) time, I will update by way of pictures. Besides, didn’t a wise person once say that a picture is worth a thousand words? In the spirit of that logic, I present you a few of my many excuses as to why I have been so glaringly absent from internet land.


Vacationing in MI with my bestie

Time with the fam on the lake

Chi-town

Graduating with some very cool court reporting peeps



NCRA convention in Chicago

The pros and cons of going paperless as a student

I recently upgraded my student writer and made the plunge into the world of paperless. I admit, my initial excitement has officially burned off and now I’m wondering if I made the right decision. I think it is fair to say that the transition has not been as smooth as I had hoped or thought it would be. As a student, there is much to learn and we rely a great deal on the wisdom of those who have gone before us. The problem with that is you can talk to five different reporters and get five different opinions. Sorting through these varying opinions to determine what is right for you can be a bit challenging, and at the end of the day you just have to make a decision and go with it. I do think there is a slight bit of a disadvantage in regards to the opinion pool as many of the reporters went through school with paper machines. With paperless being a relatively new phenomenon, especially in the realm of student-writers, sometimes it is hard not to wonder how much of their thinking is just (dare I say) “old school”. I know, I know. I’m probably not supposed to say that out loud, but you know you, too, have had that very thought. There are also those who seem to almost embrace every advancing technology almost a bit too eagerly and snub the idea of a paper machine as nothing more than a mere relic. In light of all this, I’ve decided to share a few of my own personal pros and cons of going paperless as a student. Now, please note. These are merely my own opinion based on my own experiences. You can take it or leave it as it makes no difference to me.

1. After using a manual writer for so long, I sometimes get irritated with how smooth and light the touch of the paperless is. I know…even as I write that I think that must sound totally crazy. It’s just that it is so drastically different from the manual that I feel like I often press keys I’m not intending to merely because the touch is so extremely gentle. If writing on my paper machine, I doubt I would get even a hint of a shadow. I wonder if I had learned on a paperless from the get-go if this would even be an issue. I think not.

2. On the flip side, I find my hands and fingers don’t get tired nearly as fast as they used to with my paper writer. I’m sure this is due to the fact that the touch is so extremely light that keystrokes are practically effortless. This is definitely not to be undervalued as it is beyond important to be actively taking care of our body. After all, our hands are quite literally our bread and butter.

3. Due to the ultra-light touch, I have trouble with stacking and being able to determine what I was intending to right. Often words transcribe in reverse. So for instance, I might write the words “the car” (T/ KAR). I will write it quickly and correctly, yet it will pop up as a mistranslate stroked reversed and appear on one line as KART. Maybe not the best example, but you get the idea. Sometimes it is easy to figure out, sometimes it isn’t. With a paper it seems to be a bit easier to decipher shadows and stacking.

4. I do miss the convenience of having good old-fashioned steno notes to stash away in my purse for those spare moments that pop up here and there where I can read back on the go. If I want to do that, I now have to print out my notes. I must admit, this is a total pain. I find I rarely do that and as a result I don’t read my notes back as often as I probably should. Shame on me for reading back is an essential form of practice.

5. With paperless there is no ink cartridges to deal with or steno pads to order which is actually quite heavenly. I think I had a stack of paper notes in corner of my office that seemed to grow like a bad weed. Plus, my new-found paperless-ness is stylishly green.

Overall, my opinion is paperless is still definitely where you want to end up, but when and how you get there seems to be a choice that is as personal as whether you prefer 2% or skim milk with your latte. Like most everything in life, you will find someone to agree with you and someone to disagree. I think in hindsight, I may have chosen to wait until I completed school before going paperless…maybe even until a year or so after starting work. But then again, there’s nothing like taking the bull by the horns. So whether it was bravery or insanity that overtook me, I’m currently in the wrestling phase and one way or the other I will come out on top. Watch me.