SLEEPLESS SATURDAY

Every year South Beach pulls an all-nighter. The city hires hundreds of artists to entertain folks from sunset to sunrise for "Sleepless Night". The paper says over 100,000 of us went to the last night's event. From what I could see, only half of us were able to find places to park. By 7 pm, all the public parking lots were filled.

Francesca and I found ourselves cruising past beachside search lights, various groups in concert, and people that seemed to be having fun.

After eons we snagged a spot near Lincoln Road Mall. Finally on foot we we ran into a towering Scotsman with a frisky dog. He told jokes and played his bag pipes while the dog peed on everyone nearby. Yeah, I got hit but since there was a skinny guy inside the dog, it probably wasn't the real stuff.

The New World Symphony gave free mini-concerts inside their new hall. We watched one as it was projected live on a wall outside. Two hours later a group of gravity-defying artists were scheduled to dance suspended by ropes, on the same wall.

We couldn't stay for that. We wanted to drive to more Sleepless Night sites that, as it turned out, had no places to park.

We finally gave up on the whole sleepless bit. We found a great place to park right in front of our house.