I've done something

Since childhood, I have had a deep and profound love of reading.  Some may call it an obsession.  I cannot go to sleep at night without reading at least a paragraph of something.  I can't be in a car or train or on a bus without some reading material.  Once, I left my apartment without the book I was reading at the time and I sulked on the F train all the way to Broadway-Lafayette.  It's like I don't know what to do with myself unless I am reading.  Sometimes I have a list of books I want to read so long it is literally overwhelming; other times I am so engrossed in a book my reality is suspended and everything becomes tinted with shades of the author's universe.

Lately, I have found myself more and more in awe of writers and their books, right down to the actual tomes themselves.  In a bookstore, I experience a physcial reaction to the sheer quantity of books around me.  I just love being in bookstores and libraries, surrounded by these objects I just can't get enough of.

Today, I took the first step in my consideration of a career in book publishing.  This is something that I have been thinking about for a long time, but have only shared with a few close friends.  Since I don't know much about the industry, besides what I know from being a reader, I decided to take a non-credit class at NYU.  I am going to be registering for "Books From Writer to Reader: An Overview of the Publishing Process".  The instructor is the senior production editor for Simon & Schuster, so I'm excited to be getting an insider's perspective. 

Now, as an NYU employee, I get 80% of the tuition for non-credit courses that are not job related paid for by the school.  But of course, they make you work for it.  Layers and layers of bureaucracy stand between me and full registration in this course.  The first thing was filling out the tuition remission form, which I did today, as well as handing it in to the Stern HR dept.  Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get a call to go pick up my approved form, then I need to walk it up 8 blocks to Central HR.  They'll take a day with it, and I will have to go pick up the form from them and walk it over to the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS, the NYU school I'll be attending) registrar, where I can officially register and pay my share of the course tuition.

I am feeling quite proud of myself, because I have been talking and thinking about this for so long with no action.  Now I feel like I finally did something good for myself, and am taking the opportunities that are available to me as an NYU employee.  After Raph and I get married, he will hopefully be taking advantage of the benefits as my spouse, when he begins his MBA program at Stern.  (But SHH, he still needs to take the GMAT and apply to the program, no jinxing, please).  :) 

Now I am off to bed, feeling accomplished and happy. 

Oh, and congratulations are in order for one of my best RL friends, tiggereve3
She's taken the initiative to pursue one of her passions, as well, and just got a part-time job with a photography studio!  She'll be starting this Friday night as an assistant at a wedding.  Way to go!!