a tribute to mike

so i have this friend.
he's probably the only friend i've known thirteen years and keep in touch with on a regular basis, and we live across the country from each other. actually, to set the record straight, we had barely become friends before i moved from florida. we knew of each other, of course, as he was dating my best friend's sister and we found ourselves frequently at their house (it was much cooler than mine and, i'm guessing his, what with lakefront access, a huge ballroom, and civil war-era secret passages to boot). the end of the school year before i moved he wrote a sincere and amazing note in my yearbook. i guess you'd have to understand the school we attended: it was a college prep school with all sorts of lost, fake people. so to find a jewel such as mike was a rare occasion. anyway, in said note he left me his number and said keep in touch. so i did. and we became very close friends through mail. i could always count on him for a good letter, complete with some sort of quote at the end. we talked a lot of music; in fact, i'd say that's a huge part of our friendship now. he's a good contact for me for new artists and hopefully vice-versa.
we've kept in touch through colleges, relationships, moves, heartbreaks, marriages, and now a kid for me. he is a constant, the definition of a good friend.
we had the luck of being able to squeeze in a visit with him and his lovely wife while in florida. they live a stone-throw away from my grandma, and they accompanied us to sea world (and, of course, the beach--mike couldn't live without some big body of water nearby). sea world was great--perfect for soren's age and interests, and i hadn't been there probably since i was eight. justin even enjoyed it; it's truly a place for all ages. and shamu, well, let's face it--she pretty much kicks ass. in fact, i'll admit, i got a little teary-eyed when she came out. and the trainer's testimony of leaving her english-teaching career to work with shamu was rather touching. (i considered it for a minute.)
anyway, thanks, mike, for being such a great friend and all your support and letters and music sharing through the years!
shamu, doin' her thing. (we saw the show twice and sat in the front row of the splash zone the second time...we were all SOAKED!
at the shark exhibit. (it's a fake one, keep yer panties on.)
all of us in anticipation of getting drenched with cold salt water.
after the second shamu show, soaked. we dried fast, though, because, well, it's florida. shortly after this soren fell asleep for her only nap of the day...she did good, she went from 6am to 5pm before crashing!
winding down before we left--we were too late to feed the dolphins, so the next best thing was just to check them out from underground.