a new building graces the philadelphia skyline. it's been in construction for months, years maybe. not in center city, but off to the right as the schukuyll expressway dives down along the river, a huge glass mirror-paned structure shimmers, sharp and tall. its cut like a broad knife, the top coming to a high point on one side and sliding diagonally down toward the other. gorgeous. i have no idea what's inside that building, but it looks so transparent that i feel like i should.

rallo, menin, and i went out in old city last night. we got valet parking, ran into the plough and the stars and some of our friends, and spent the night roaming the city. dancing, singing, freezing in between bars. laughing that some guy thought "a mouth like a sea bass" was a compliment. chasing my friends who were chasing uniformed men. catching up with them in all kinds of ways, remembering that good friendships can be picked up where they left off. finally, eating baked potato pizza at 1am in a packed frenzy of a room while the valet found our car for us. i'm not known for being a night owl, but as we got in my car, i couldn't believe it was time to go home already.

and that's when i saw the building. it had been elegant and amazing earlier, while the orange-red sun was lighting it on fire, but now, in the darkness, it was twinkling...glittering. for the holidays? but they weren't christmas lights - they must have been built into the outside structure of the building during construction. it was as though the architect had taken a handful of blue and silver glitter, flung it up in the air, and loved the look of it falling so much that he must have gone to great lengths to build the effect right into the framework. how gorgeous. and how superfluous. surely he had a million other things to worry about, several million other ways to spend that money. i'd like to thank him for being so thoughtful. as i layed in bed last night, waiting for sleep, i thanked God for being so superfluous sometimes, for throwing all of this glitter in the air over me, for building some of it right into my framework.

it IS still there, after all.