Last night the orange clouds over downtown were further illuminated by over a dozen search lights, all sourced at the same spot on the ground. I counted fifteen, but they were each scurrying in their ellipses so fast I'm not sure I saw them all. It was like we were expecting a visit from the Luftwaffe, but there was no roar of Messerschmitts, no tracer fire from the ground. The only sound was your grandmother shoving what's left of your meager inheritance into a video poker machine. The skies were lit to celebrate the opening of a new $65 million, 2900-space parking garage at the Greektown casino. Yes, I live where the opening of a parking garage is a cause for celebration. There have been billboards in the suburbs advertising the opening of this garage for weeks. "Parking has been our Achilles' heel for a long time," said the CEO of the Greektown casino. Until now, casino customers may have had to walk one---sometimes even two---blocks from the nearest garage to the casino. Now cars can drive right into the garage from the highway off-ramp. The structure is connected to the casino by a climate-controlled walkway. There is no longer any need for anyone to actually set foot on a street in Detroit, God forbid.
In other exciting news, Mighty Masons were in town this week; Holly from Nothing But Bonfires has also been here for a couple days, on some press junket to show how appealing Detroit is for tourists now. They took her to dinner at the new Michael Mina seafood restaurant, to the Henry Ford's new Isamu Noguchi/Buckminster Fuller exhibit, a pre-opening view of Cranbrook's Eero Saarinen retrospective, and even a preview of the Detroit Institute of Art's grand re-opening. Last night she called during intermission from the symphony, before heading back to her deluxe suite at the brand new MGM Grand. She's spending tonight at our house, and tomorrow I'll take her on a neighborhood tour to completely undo all the work these people showing her around have done. In the meantime, I need to find a half-chewed York Peppermint Patty for her pillow.
And as for my despair the other night, thanks to all who sent e-mails of commiseration and support. Things have gotten a little better. One of the benefits of having a talkative two-year old now instead of a baby is that you can spend all day logically explaining why it's not good to carry on all night, how she needs to sleep if she wants to grow, or at least have fun playing the next day. And then at night, in that semi-darkness you can remind her of what you talked about all day, and if you're lucky you might find yourself singing her a few songs and petting her hair and then just sitting there and watching her eyes struggle to stay open, and if you sit there long enough, silent as can be, she might just go to sleep. All day she tells me stories and I have no idea where they came from. Her imagination is suddenly so powerful. Thankfully, some logic came with it.