Mum's the Word

As I embark upon keeping a public record of my work, I have been asked by colleagues about the issue of confidentiality.  One of the tenets of my profession is that we have to maintain a certain degree of secrecy about our work.  This helps folks trust us in our work and know that we won't be blabbering the juicy tidbits about their nose job around town.

With that being said, a lot of the work that I do is a matter of public record and, to a certain extent, open to analysis and comment.  Much of the court work I am involved with is open to the public.  The exceptions being juvenile court or otherwise closed proceedings.  I also do quite a bit of platform and performance work, which is also open to the public.  I will maintain the cloak of confidentiality as much as possible and still share some of the trials and tribulations of my work.  

Here is a photo of a gig I did late last year.  This is the Sarah Brightman concert at the Verizon Center.

 

These hands were made for talking....

I think my job is pretty interesting. Strike that. My job is downright fascinating. At social gatherings, when everyone is sitting around doing their best impression of a coworker (who invariably resembles a character from the movie Office Space), I tend to be uncharacteristically quiet. You see, I'm self-employed. When my day sucks, it's my fault. The commute home, the long hours, the time spent smelling the armpit of the guy next to me on the subway is all my fault. Of course, I also don't have to beg for time off. When I hate the people I work with; I just don't go there anymore. And the money doesn't hurt either.

In case you're curious now, I'm an American Sign Language Interpreter. Yes, I talk with my hands for a living. Yes, you can make a living doing what I do and, no, I didn't get into it because someone in my family is deaf. There were a lot of reasons, but that wasn't one of them. I work in all kinds of environments and with all kinds of people. I get to learn about the world everyday in ways I never thought possible. All in all, I love my job and I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world. To get up everyday excited about work (well....almost every day) is probably one of the best gifts a person could get in life.

Of course, there is more to me than just my job title. Since it's the most common way for people to get acquainted (sooo....what do you do? you know, for a living?) I thought I would start with it.

It's nice to meet you. Hope you enjoy what I have to say.....