2023-05-25

Hard at work but not being creative

There's been a gap in the daily notes and here's why: It's the fourth day of a whole week's work. Tomorrow is the longest day and supposedly the toughest yet, because it's an on-site deposition involving a superpower of a technology company, scheduled for at least 11 hours. In comparison, Monday was tough in its own right in that I had to get up at 5:45AM in order to drive south for the first time to Salinas to interpret in a criminal trial at 8:15AM. Not knowing the parking situation and not getting timely information from a non-responsive court coordinator really made it hard. Why do people not do their job, I wonder?

Turns out the drive has been consistently 1 hour or so going and returning, thanks to the fact that San Jose to Salinas during rush hour is reverse traffic. I have been zooming at 70-80 mi/h on highway 101 the whole time.

All in all, it has been an extremely rewarding experience. I am glad to start working again this way after a long hiatus necessitated by conference-going, presenting, research paper writing, and teaching. I swear I'll put all those types of non-interpreting activities behind, completely, after I discharge the last of related obligations: present a paper at an international conference virtually in late July.

Thinking back at the non-interpreting stuff I did in 2022 and so far in 2023, they all share one thing in common: creative work. I conclude that I am not a creative person. Coming up with stuff is blood, sweat, toil, and tears for me, period! I admire creative people even more now.