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.