First of many
Jan. 2nd, 2008 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offbalanceHappy Birthday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
infinitehippo!!
My cubemate is playing the Juno soundtrack. Blech.
I didn't post all that much last year, and I hope to change that this year. I'm going to see if I can post at least a real paragraph every day, if I can. (Let's see how long this lasts).
So, as I've been teasing the last couple of days, I'm embarking on something of an adventure in the first half of 2008. As many of you know, 2007 wasn't my favorite year by any stretch of the imagination. I was preoccupied by a lot of things, none of them worth really too much thought. I was borderline obsessed with finding a boyfriend before a certain date, and I spent thousands of hours worrying about things that were not improved by worrying. All I succeeded in doing was driving myself (and several people around me) crazy.
I was on the phone with my mom on Sunday night, and in a moment of mild exasperation, she suggested that I "take a class or something." To her, all of this panic and worry stemmed from boredom, and it was high time I got off my brain and give it something to do instead of waste away. She's suggested this a couple of times before, but I wrote it off. I never found anything that I really connected with. Until now, obviously.
February is going to be a big month for me. In addition to two very exciting concerts, I will be going back to school! I have a one-day seminar called "Jump Start Your Novel," on the 9th. The following Tuesday I will begin a class in Humor and Comedy Writing that lasts for 10 sessions. I'm pretty jazzed about both. I stumbled across the comedy class by accident, and the course description made me laugh, so I thought about it for a day or two, then signed up for both of them (withredesigner holding my hand via IM). I took deep breaths and reminded myself that if this guy sucks, I can withdraw and get most of my money back after 1-2 classes. (I was always good at picking up on a professor's potential suckitude, so hopefully that little bit of school-fu is still present in me.)
The best part? These are both at NYU. And since I will be a student there, I can mock the place to my heart's content. There is no downside.
These are going to be a test. If I acclimate well to the whole school thing, I am almost certainly going to pursue some sort of paralegal certificate starting in the fall. I basically like what I do, and that is largely what I do, plus some other extremely useful skills. And, when your company does tuition reimbursement, it's stupid not to at least try to take advantage of it. I always planned to, but I never had a plan to before now.
In some way, I'm glad I waited. I wasn't ready before now. The idea of taking classes and being back in a school environment used to give me hives, now it's really exciting me. I enrolled yesterday, now I just have to wait for my course kit to arrive in the mail. I needed something new - I see now that I was stagnating and I needed something radically different to be excited about and involved in. The prospect of taking these classes was more exciting to me than taking a trip anywhere, so I took that as a sign that I should do this. There will be plenty of time to travel later this year or next.
Every time I think about doing this, I smile, and that's all I really need to know.
infinitehippo!! My cubemate is playing the Juno soundtrack. Blech.
I didn't post all that much last year, and I hope to change that this year. I'm going to see if I can post at least a real paragraph every day, if I can. (Let's see how long this lasts).
So, as I've been teasing the last couple of days, I'm embarking on something of an adventure in the first half of 2008. As many of you know, 2007 wasn't my favorite year by any stretch of the imagination. I was preoccupied by a lot of things, none of them worth really too much thought. I was borderline obsessed with finding a boyfriend before a certain date, and I spent thousands of hours worrying about things that were not improved by worrying. All I succeeded in doing was driving myself (and several people around me) crazy.
I was on the phone with my mom on Sunday night, and in a moment of mild exasperation, she suggested that I "take a class or something." To her, all of this panic and worry stemmed from boredom, and it was high time I got off my brain and give it something to do instead of waste away. She's suggested this a couple of times before, but I wrote it off. I never found anything that I really connected with. Until now, obviously.
February is going to be a big month for me. In addition to two very exciting concerts, I will be going back to school! I have a one-day seminar called "Jump Start Your Novel," on the 9th. The following Tuesday I will begin a class in Humor and Comedy Writing that lasts for 10 sessions. I'm pretty jazzed about both. I stumbled across the comedy class by accident, and the course description made me laugh, so I thought about it for a day or two, then signed up for both of them (with
redesigner holding my hand via IM). I took deep breaths and reminded myself that if this guy sucks, I can withdraw and get most of my money back after 1-2 classes. (I was always good at picking up on a professor's potential suckitude, so hopefully that little bit of school-fu is still present in me.) The best part? These are both at NYU. And since I will be a student there, I can mock the place to my heart's content. There is no downside.
These are going to be a test. If I acclimate well to the whole school thing, I am almost certainly going to pursue some sort of paralegal certificate starting in the fall. I basically like what I do, and that is largely what I do, plus some other extremely useful skills. And, when your company does tuition reimbursement, it's stupid not to at least try to take advantage of it. I always planned to, but I never had a plan to before now.
In some way, I'm glad I waited. I wasn't ready before now. The idea of taking classes and being back in a school environment used to give me hives, now it's really exciting me. I enrolled yesterday, now I just have to wait for my course kit to arrive in the mail. I needed something new - I see now that I was stagnating and I needed something radically different to be excited about and involved in. The prospect of taking these classes was more exciting to me than taking a trip anywhere, so I took that as a sign that I should do this. There will be plenty of time to travel later this year or next.
Every time I think about doing this, I smile, and that's all I really need to know.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:16 pm (UTC)My company does tuition reimbursement, too ... I really want to look into whether I might be able to apply it to the Bennington College MFA in writing ... it's a really interesting programme that might do me a lot of good, and which arguably applies to my job.
(paralegal stuff is great. Get your notary's license as part of it, and you're career-set forever!)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:25 pm (UTC)I think you should talk to the relevant people and find out. If you have a good presentation and can spin it appropriately, I can't see a good reason why they'd turn you down.
(That's the exact plan. I like the idea of being very employable.)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:27 pm (UTC)And hell, it's a writing MFA. That's like my "backup" graduate degree dream. If I could get some money towards it from work, daaaamn. The only problem is that I'd want it in fiction, naturally, and my job would want it in magazine/NF work...
You're gonna have to tell me all about the comedy writing class, btw, given that I'm a wannabe humour novelist...
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:37 pm (UTC)Well, you could point out that you'd be studying all different kinds of writing, despite that fact that your general thesis will be in fiction. I mean, all MFAs require coursework, no?
I will be posting about this class often, don't you worry. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:42 pm (UTC)Yay class updates! :-D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:59 pm (UTC)My company's policy is that it doesn't have to relate to your exact job, but it *does* have to relate to the business of the company. So, that's interesting.
Whee!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 05:04 pm (UTC)Hell, I'd be happy doing the NF degree, although my baby is fiction, obviously. I don't know how well I'd get along in a fiction MFA, though, seeing as I don't write (and actually sort of loathe) "literary fiction," being a mass-market sort of girl. NF might work best...
If nothing else, it's worth looking into. Although that WOULD eat all my vacation time for the next two years of my life...ew.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 07:37 pm (UTC)seeing as I don't write (and actually sort of loathe) "literary fiction," being a mass-market sort of girl.
This is exactly why I never went for my MFA. I love literary fiction when done well (Tom Perrotta, Michael Chabon), but most of it isn't. Quite a bit of it is masterbatory at best, and the only thing worse is those who worship it with fanatical fervor.
These are all very important things to consider. How would it eat up all your time, though?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 07:44 pm (UTC)Quite a bit of it is masterbatory at best, and the only thing worse is those who worship it with fanatical fervor.
And that's why I stopped going to writer's room things in the Berkshires. I swear, I'm the only person around here who:
A) writes pulp fiction
B) enjoys pulp fiction
C) is not afraid to admit to A and B in public
LitFic and the LitFic cult just piss me off 98% of the time. And I fret that the NF division of the MFA is just "how to write another crappy memoir" - but that's why you contact the department and make with the prescreening, eh?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:27 pm (UTC)(The professor who teaches the one-day-only novel class also teaches a longer one, but I figured this would be a better introduction. If I really like her, I can always take the other one. I liked what the description had to say and I'm hopeful she's a good kick in the A.)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 06:46 pm (UTC)I also wanted to say that your Christmas card meant way more to me than you can even imagine. The fact that you wrote that I am a warrior jump started something inside of me that I thought was long dead, and I thank you for that.
*HUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGSHUGS*
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 07:39 pm (UTC)I am SO glad you liked the card. But you seriously are a warrior, girlie. All of the stuff you go through on a regular basis would have driven me screaming down the street insane by now. I'm super-duper psyched about your new zine plans, too!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:42 pm (UTC)I'm almost better! I just have a tiny cough! We need plans!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 08:45 pm (UTC)I guess you just have to go in expecting the prof to love certain things and hate others, and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised if that's not all.