Apparently, I knew I would like Sarah Manguso’s The Captain Lands in Paradise so much, I ordered one used copy and one new copy.  The used came days ago, and I loved it.  I just wrote all about it to my graduate advisor.  The new one came from Amazon today.

So the used copy will get shipped to whomever writes the most compelling argument for why he/she deserves a free copy of a Sarah Manguso.  Have at it in the comments section.

I also got One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box by Manguso, Dave Eggers, and Deb Olin Unferth.

A dream:

I am in my office wearing just pajamas, and I know I have a meeting coming up so I have to scramble to get dressed. A co-worker comes in and starts telling me about fish. I need to get dressed so I can meet with him properly. DB calls and tells me that there are two women to see me. It’s 9 AM. I walk downstairs. Seated in the waiting area is THE HAND. She has Eleanor with her. I enter the lobby to hug her and she does not stand or hug back.

“This is a wonderful surprise,” I say. “In fact, surprise doesn’t really begin to cover it.”

“I wanted to see where you work,” she says.

“This is the place,” I say. “What on earth are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d take a look around before we send you off to continue your studies.”

“Um, I thought I was almost done.”

“You are,” she says, “with us. You’re going to Sarah Lawrence next.”

The alarm woke me before I had a chance to ask how I was supposed to explain this to my wife or why I was shipping out to a girl’s school. But in my mind, once The Hand had told me I was going, I knew I was going to end up going, and I was in quite a panic, because I really didn’t know how I was going to break the news to Ladybug.

In real, waking life, we bought a new digital camera, since both of our old ones had broken. The idea of having one for the family is great, except the only time I can think of in the next year when I’m going to want to use a digital camera, she’s going to be in Turkey with it.