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I am struggling to give myself permission to not go kayaking tonight. I haven’t been the past two weeks, and I am not going to be able to go next Thursday because that’s when I’m driving to Philadelphia, so I feel like I should go tonight. But I have had one of the most killer schedules today I can remember having anytime in recent memory. I had back-to-back meetings from 8:30 to 12:30, and another meeting at 2:30. Interpreting is mentally exhausting, as you’ve probably heard me say before, and one of the hazards of working in an IT department is that all the meetings are highly technical (and therefore even more mentally demanding), so today’s schedule was just brutal.

But I just bought a $475 kayak which I’ve barely used, and a $110 paddle that I haven’t used at all, and I’m spending about $100 to store my kayak at the boathouse for the summer. (Hopefully it’s still there, at least…my locking system is not as secure as it could be. I really hope its still there, since I haven’t been in a while…I just e-mailed the group to ask if somebody will look for it for me and make sure it’s still there.) I might go out this Saturday…but right now I’m just exhausted to tears! And yet I still feel guilty for not going, given how much money I’ve spent on kayaking. I feel like I want to give up the sport, like I’m not any good at it…A says I only feel that way because I’m tired, but I do feel that way…for the moment.

I am going to Shore Leave alone for the first time. Toadstool is still too weak to be left alone for the weekend, and the only other option would have been to put her to sleep before tonight. If she’d been in this state for a month, I would assume she wouldn’t get better, but it’s only been a few days so I can’t put her to sleep yet because she might still bounce back. So A is staying home with Toadstool, and I am driving up to Hunt Valley by myself.

I’ll be okay. It really won’t be much different from normal, because I am so busy during these conventions that I really hardly ever get to see A when I’m awake! But I like knowing she’s there, and I like going to sleep with her when I’m done for the day, so this is going to be a big change. I am bringing my laptop and a couple of DVDs that she won’t be interested in, so I’ll watch movies, I guess. Hopefully I’ll be able to afford the hotel’s net access, but if not I will hopefully at least be in a room where my Sidekick gets a good signal. I’ll have to get into this outfit by myself on Saturday night before the Masquerade, but I’m looking forward to showing it off and wearing it to interpret.

Something I forgot to mention about this weekend is that at one point I had no fewer than six of my most favorite people all in front of me at once. I happen to have a lot of favorite people, but not all of them are local, so they don’t all usually come together like that. (Granted in this case most of them were locals, but it was still a good feeling.)

Also, the NGLTF dinner went amazingly well. At one point I asked fairerhiannon beforehand if she was nervous, because I was too, but I think we both did a great job. We’re pretty sure there were no deaf people in the audience, because the event wasn’t advertised as being interpreted, and it wasn’t filmed for posterity so we were just signing into the ether. I focused more on matching register than message, and I got really into it - then afterward, somebody came up and said I’d done a really good job, and wanted my business card! He turned out to be from the Washington Mystics, the local WNBA team…I’m not sure what he wanted me for but it will be interesting to see where that goes.

Remember this guy? I’ll be seeing him again on Saturday. I have to admit I am scared. I heard this weekend that he’s not very professional, and the person hiring me wants me for the important stuff and him for the lesser stuff, but I’m worried. I’m also a bit worried that all of my friends will be attending Jessi’s bootblack training and I’ll be interpreting for the people I am not especially close to. Plus, Mr. Misogynist is apparently interpreting for the bootblack training. boichick, what part are you coming down for? Maybe if I’m lucky the two won’t overlap and I’ll have everybody for the contest. The Baltimore Eagle website is not very forthcoming, so who knows. (Oh hey, I can e-mail the guy who’s hiring me and ask him.) I wonder if Mr. Misogynist will even remember me. You better believe I remember him.

I am having a hard time putting my finger on this malaise, but it’s been plaguing me for a while now.

Tonight I’m interpreting for the opening meeting for contestants in American Brotherhood Weekend. When I interpreted last year for this contest, it was just the contest itself. This year, though, there are two deaf contestants, so there’s more to be done. fairerhiannon and I both have to work tomorrow; we only found out a few days ago about the deaf contestants, so we didn’t have time to arrange time off. Guess who’s theoretically interpreting tomorrow…the one who didn’t show up for LLC. I really hope she shows up this time, but if not they’re going to rearrange things so fairerhiannon can pick up when she gets there at 2:00 or so.

The contest itself is going to be tough, because whenever there’s a deaf contestant onstage, we’ll both be working. One of us will be onstage signing for the audience, and the other will have to have a chair in the front row where we can sit to sign for the deaf contestant. That person will also have to have a microphone in her lap to do any voice interpreting that comes up; contestants don’t say a whole lot but they do have a little speech or two.

It’s going to be fun, though - I had a great time last year and I’ve been looking forward to this year.

Today I finished interpreting at LLC. The other interpreter never did show up. I talked to her on the phone around 10pm and she said she was 3-4 hours away and she would be there to help me out; around 9:30am she e-mailed me that she was still about 250 miles away. Um, huh? Whatever. When I talked to her on the phone she said “So yeah, I’m in deep trouble…” and waited for me to reassure her - but I didn’t say a thing. I interpreted for eight hours yesterday, more or less nonstop without breaks. I had no sympathy for her, and I was exhausted. But hey, whatever, it’s over now.

Today went fine. I was pretty tired by the end of the second workshop, and I hadn’t had lunch yet, so when one of the deaf guys wanted to say something I ended up staring at him blankly. He got a little irritated but I finally figured it out, and when the workshop was over I apologized. He admitted that he had jumped topics and so he could see why I was confused, especially given how tired I was. The two deaf guys didn’t show up for the closing ceremonies, but I interpreted for aidan_boi_x again.

The conference staff took very good care of me; I gave them my handwritten invoice and watched as the treasurer wrote up a check on the spot. (I had gotten permission to increase my rate by 25% given that I was working alone the whole time, so it was a nice check.) I also got a regular attendee t-shirt (black) and then later a purple t-shirt (staff), plus a couple of the enamel pins that are always at these events. They even remembered to thank me during the closing ceremonies, and the whole room gave me deaf applause.

It has been an interesting 24 hours. We arrived in NYC at 3:30 yesterday, and parked in what was technically an illegal space until 6pm, but there were so many other cars parked there that we figured we’d be okay. We came back two hours later…and the car was gone. So we found out which impound lot it had been taken to, and how much it would cost to get it back. A then went to the opening event for her perfume festival, and I went to the opening event for the Leather Leadership Conference.

I’d been promised the other terp was on the way, but she never showed up. Two of the deaf guys never came back from “grabbing a bite real quick” but aidan_boi_x was there and I interpreted for him. Fortunately he’s more English than ASL, so my brain wasn’t quite the pile of goo it could have been.

A was waiting for me when I was done, and we walked to the impound lot about a mile away. We paid $185 for the towing - which seems like an awful lot per car - and discovered two $65 tickets on it. The pound attendant told us one would be dismissed, because they’re not supposed to write tickets for the same offense twice. The first ticket was from 4:10pm, and the second was from 5:00, so the second was written before the tow truck arrived from the first ticket. So she told us to fight that one.

We parked the car again - legally this time - and went to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep, because I was worrying about what I would do if I ended up teaching the 9:30am ASL class.

I got back to the hotel this morning - and nobody had heard from the other interpreter. Well, that’s not completely true - she had responded to my email at 1:00am and said she wasn’t due in until the morning anyway and she’d be there. Yeah, whatever. By 9:00 I was seated in the workshop room and people started arriving…but not the other interpreter. So at 9:30 I started the class and did the best I could. Toward the end, a deaf guy came in asking about interpreting services; I said I could do it when I was done with the workshop so he stuck around and helped me answer questions.

When that was done, we went to the session the deaf guy wanted to hear; the other deaf guy in attendance showed up too. It was very interesting, but it was a long 75-minute workshop. After that I got some lunch; I’d meant to bring mine but I wasn’t expecting to be there till lunchtime - or rather I was expecting it, but I was hoping against it.

On my way back in, the coordinator for the event saw me and thanked me profusely. Apparently all the evaluations from my workshop were positive - and I’ve never taught any sort of workshop before! He was very grateful, and I could tell I was saving the day by stepping in to help out even though I hadn’t been asked to. One of the people in my workshop was the coordinator for the contest the other terp holds the title for, and she was “livid” (her words) that the other terp hadn’t shown up. She asked for my card, so I think I’ll be interpreting for that contest too (in Philadelphia), plus with my super-willingness to help out, I should get future gigs from that too. Which means money, yes, but it’s also a point of pride that I stepped in, helped out, and further established myself as reliable.

As for the other terp, who knows. When the coordinator mentioned how great my evaluations were, I asked about the other terp. He said “oh, let’s not even go there…” heh! So I am interpreting another workshop 10 minutes from now, and then probably another after that. A’s perfume events run to 6 or 8:30 (depending on if she goes out for drinks), so I will just relax a bit once this is done. And then I’ll probably be back tomorrow. Fortunately I get to bill for all this extra work!

First, much love for eyes_of_cyrene.

So, yesterday was just bad from the beginning. I had taken something to help me sleep the night before, so I had a really hard time getting up in the morning and I had a headache right from the beginning of the day. I needed gas but I was running late, so I just left for work. On my way, I decided my headache was bad enough that I should go to the drugstore for Advil. Only problem was - the one I chose wasn’t a 24-hour store like I thought it was. I got gas at a nearby station, and made my way back to my usual route. I passed a grocery store and figured I could get Advil there (by this time I was rather late), and I noticed a 24-hour drugstore in the same shopping center, so I got Advil there.

When I got in around 9:00 or 9:15 (my usual start time is 8:30), I found one of my deaf clients had e-mailed me about a 10:00 meeting and a 1:30 meeting. He mentioned the 1:30 one would probably be long, so I should e-mail the interpreter coordinator and ask to borrow one of the other terps that’s in the building Tuesday through Thursday (I’m the only one here Mondays and Fridays, but those are light days anyway). Unfortunately she replied that no one was available, but if anything changed she’d send someone down. Fortunately the 10:00 meeting was canceled, but I had another meeting at 11:00 anyway.

That meeting was okay, I guess. It was long, almost an hour, and there were two deaf clients and a bunch of hearing people who never let the deaf clients get a word in edgewise; I try to just retain whatever the deaf client says and wait for a moment to say it, but they notice that the hearing people are all still talking and want to know what’s going on, and I can’t retain their message and continue to interpret. When that meeting was over it was time for lunch.

I was afraid the client who wanted to go to the 1:30 meeting wasn’t going to show up, but he got there shortly before it started. I worked my ass off until 3:00. I don’t think anybody who is not an interpreter can realize what interpreting entails. Your brain must be performing the task at all times. You cannot let your mind wander, you cannot go to the bathroom - it’s not like anything else, because pretty much all other intense tasks still allow for a moment of thinking about something else. The deaf client’s mind may wander, and sometimes you can tell when that’s happening so you can ease up a bit, but you’re still having to absorb the entire message because when the deaf client looks back at you, you better know what’s going on. Of course, after a long stretch of interpreting your mind does wander and you can’t help it, because the brain is so fatigued it’s forcing you to take a split-second break.

Anyway, at the end of the meeting (which was quite technical) I went back up to my desk. I hadn’t been sitting there two minutes when a deaf client who doesn’t use me very often came to get me for a quick chat with a co-worker. When that was done, my primary client came over and said “oh, I forgot about that 3:00 meeting” so we went downstairs for that. I warned him that I’d just been interpreting for a long time so I wasn’t doing very well, but he said it should be brief and he didn’t really need to be there anyway. Well, guess what - it was half an hour, it was quite technical, and he did need to be there. Sigh.

So I interpreted for almost three hours straight, pretty much. I made it home safely, had dinner, and waited for A to get home; then we took a nap together. We slept for three hours, and when we woke up I felt sick just as I had in the morning. I could have sworn I was actually getting sick but I feel okay today. Whew.