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Hey, it's Nathan here. It's 8:30 am on Father's Day and I just had the craziest dream between when I woke up at 6, fell back asleep, and then woke up again at 8. I never remember my dreams, but this one was particularly vivid, and topical. Here goes:

It's today in my dream, in that it's my first quasi-Father's Day, and I've just been at my parents' house celebrating the day (Happy Father's Day, Dad!). It's maybe 6 pm, and Whit and I are now supposed to be meeting the Gavins somewhere for their Father's Day celebrations. For some reason, I need to pick something up at school, so I've dropped Whitney off with her parents. I'm walking through the main lobby of school, and, of course, the lighting is kind of ominous and there's oddly a lot of people hanging around campus for late on a Sunday. None of them were zombies or anything really fantastical like that, but I had this feeling of foreboding. Something was amiss.

I run into one of my classmates, who is working on something at her drafting desk. She says something to the effect of, "Hey, did you see that we're assigned to sit next to each other for summer studio?"

"I shouldn't be in summer studio," I reply. "I graduated in the spring."

"Oh, really?" she says, "Usually if people fail their thesis studios, they have to make it up in the summer. I figured that's what must have happened. You should probably double-check your grades, though."

Dream-world Me fully understands the ramifications of this. My new job with the Corps of Engineers requires a transcript that shows that I have completed my master's degree. I need to have this before my July 20th start date. We've already signed a lease on a place in Seattle. My new job has health insurance for the baby. Whitney has already given her notice to her job. I'm supposed to be celebrating Father's Day with the in-laws but all I can think about is that everything is about to implode on itself!

I try to hurry to one of the shared computers in the student lounge area to check my transcripts. Of course, I had to get there through some impromptu exhibit of student work, where everyone was asking me questions and needed help moving things. Why are all of these people here after the term has ended? It doesn't make any sense, and it takes much longer than expected to get to the computer.

I log on, and get to the Grades and Transcripts menu. I think to myself that there's a chance that there's been a paperwork error (probably the best case scenario) - that maybe my grades say I passed, but my transcript says I failed, or vice versa. I click on the grades menu. There's a big red mark next to my studio grade, which is a 'D' (failing for grad students), and a red stamp that says, "Must register for summer studio." Panic sets in.

I go back to the main menu to check and see if the transcript shows anything different, but the links all of a sudden don't work correctly. The internet connection starts slowing down. Finally, I get back to the menu, I click on 'Transcripts', but the link takes me to a movie clip from a submarine movie (like the "Hunt for Red October," which I've only seen once... maybe it was from a Bond movie, but it felt more serious than that. I don't know. Anyway...). I get back to the menu page again, but then a pop-up ad for Frito-Lay has obscured the entire webpage, and I can't get rid of it!

I look down in the corner of the screen, and the only thing I can see behind the potato chip ad is the time: 3:00 am. I've spent nine hours at school somehow, missed the rest of Father's Day, and now know that, instead of enjoying some time off between now and when I start my new job, I'm going to be trying to petition the administration to graduate, or worse, lose the job and be back in school.

My phone rings in my pocket. It's Whitney. I pick up, and I can tell from the tone in her voice that she's looking for a really good reason why I've spent nine hours at school on Father's Day, after I've already, supposedly, graduated.

I wake up.

My blood pressure is fine - I've had it checked recently, and I've rarely ever 'felt' it. But when I woke up, I could feel the hypertension, man. Wow. Needless to say, I came over to the real computer, where the links actually work right, and double checked my transcripts. Everything is OK, as far as I can tell. Whew.

But my dream is a nice segue into all the good news we've got goin' on around here.

1. Baby is doing well. Whit can feel him/her every now and again, wiggling around. He/She is 13 cm long right now, which, carry the one, divide by.... is 5.1 inches. That's pretty legit. And, as of last week, she actually looks pregnant, which makes it a little more real for me. ;) We'll hopefully know the gender in the second week of July.

2. I graduated! All done! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

3. As you may have inferred from my wacky dream (who dreams about potato chip pop-up ads, anyway?), I got the job with the Corps of Engineers in Seattle. Seventy-four people applied, and I interviewed in Seattle a week before my final reviews. I don't feel like I was very coherent in the interview, but I got the call the day before my finals, and all my stress just melted away. Amazing. It's a two-year internship, which means that there'll be a framework in place for getting specific training, and it gets my foot in the door for other federal jobs in the future, whether with the Corps or another agency. The architecture section of the Corps does various building projects on military installations in Washington, Idaho, and western Montana. They've done housing, administrative buildings, hangars, workshops, etc. So it looks like there'll be some variety. Plus, the benefits will be nice.

4. We're moving to Seattle. We found a little duplex in Wallingford, where they will let us plant a garden, work on stuff in the garage, and have barbeques. Looking forward to seeing you all there soon! It's two blocks or so from Gasworks Park, which means we'll have to invest in some good kites.

5. The Corps is paying for the move, which is good, since ain't no way I can get enough people in Portland metro area together to lift that table I made.

I think that dream had something to do with how much of our lives is waiting on paperwork at this particular moment. I am waiting on the U of O to have transcripts ready to send to the Corps. The Corps is currently reviewing the paperwork I submitted to get the move scheduled. I've got a small tower of paperwork to fill out before my 'intake' on my first day of work. But I don't have any real reasons to worry right now, which is a great feeling.

Hope you're all doing well. We'll keep you posted on new developments (dates for the move, new contact info, baby news...). And Happy Father's Day.

-Nathan