on the short

well, i’m sick, two days out of work so far, and i’ll have to see how tomorrow goes.

very briefly, great thanksgiving -will have pictures and stories . . . a decent drive, and yes, i still need to catch up on the whole trip to florida. . . but i’m too sick right now. . .

and i’m not sure if it’s weighing in, but i got news over the holidays that a woman i worked with at the barter passed away on thanksgiving. she battled breast cancer for a number of years, and i’d gotten word that she wasn’t doing well again.

her name is alice white. she was a performer at the barter, and i worked on a couple of shows with her. i’ve heard from friends that worked with her longer, of her many endearing qualities which only confirmed my feelings for her, knowing her as little as i did.

i have one incredible memory of her, which i always thought gave a well rounded view of her personality. a group of us had gone to the movies, we were seeing ‘sixth sense.’ we passed alice and another actor, quinn, on the way to our seats. there’s a part in the movie where it’s explained that a little girl died through her mother’s poisoning. . . . munchausen by proxy. when the audience gets to see the video tape of the mom poisoning her daughter’s food, i distinctly heard alice react, ‘oh my word,’ ‘poor child,’ ‘ohhh, my.’ all i could think was, typical alice and smile. her empathy, sympathy, and love for all things living was unbridled.



my friend john probably said it best here. . . .
john's blog

and he has a phenomenal picture of her- it really speaks volumes.

alice kept a blog for a little while, during her chemo and such. . . .

alice white

alice white

97847367429_3300
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

i got the news about alice passing the day after thanksgiving. i relayed it to trevor, who had worked with her for a number of years. later while we were cleaning up from thanksgiving left overs, i noticed the bottle of wine that he had opened the day before, for the thanksgiving meal. he hadn't noticed, the name on the bottle.

chris,terr,me,travis

chris,terr,me,travis
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

LDI conference, the original reason for my trip to florida. as we were lining up for registration we found terrance with a group of his classmates. chris, terrance, me, and travis.

chris&erika

chris&erika
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

chris and me at the irish pub at pleasure island.

dinner

dinner
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

a group of us went out to pleasure island for dinner and fun. forrest, me, chris, and his friend from school, kate. after this we toured each of the clubs, caught the comedy show, and were there as they closed up the mannequin club. . . the one with the turntable dance floor.

hulk

hulk
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

chris and i spent sunday at universal studios, and islands of adventure. we splurged on the extra pass to both parks, and the expedited pass. . . the lady told us we wouldn't have enough time to get to all the rides, possibly not even the second park. . . we proved her WRONG! we got on almost every ride, every ride we wanted to get on, and did spiderman 3 times! we were next in line when the hulk got shut down, we left, hit spiderman again, and hulk reopened, so we finally got on it!

dr.doom

dr.doom
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

the dr.doom ride, the only ride i wouldn't go on with chris at islands of adventure. i don't like the 'falling' things so much.

kass

kass
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

erika helps her younger daughter, kass, through the jungle gym.

maria

maria
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

this is erika's oldest daughter, maria. we played a pretty quick round of putt putt.

erika&erika

erika&erika
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

after something like 7 years, i finally got to meet up with my close friend from highschool, now living in florida. erika, (yep, we had the same name) and i spent the day with her two daughters.

cougar

cougar
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

pretty kitty, BIG pretty kitty. sara and i spent the afternoon at the big cat reserve near tampa. between me and this kitty was the fence you see, and a knee high barrier that we were strictly forbidden from leaning over only three feet from the fence.

cougar2

cougar2
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

our tour was an hour before they were fed. . . a good time to go. more of the cats are out and about waiting for food. it's kind of amazing to hear these guys purrrr. . .

cheeta

cheeta
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

this cheeta took his perch on the tree as we walked by his cat-atat.

lion

lion
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

ok, i thought ligers were a made up thing from 'napoleon dynomite.' turns out this lion and the white tiger up next were meant to be bred together to make ligers.

whitetiger

whitetiger
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

now these two live together peacefully.

lioness

lioness
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

apparently, we weren't a very exciting tour, according to this lioness.

panther

panther
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

pretty pretty panther. it's really a good thing they have the strict rules about not crossing the fence. all i wanted to do was roll these guys onto their backs and scratch their bellies.

sandcat

sandcat
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

this sand cat was no bigger than my cat at home. . . but he had a big cat attitude. he came out hissing, pacing, and growling. . . if it can even be called growling. oh. . . isn't he cute!

snowleopard

snowleopard
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

the snow leopards stayed hidden until it was time for dinner.

tiger

tiger
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

this particular tiger had an altercation with our guide a number of years ago. . . looks like someone is holding grudges.