Celebration of the Alligator Card

On Monday, Chris’s parents came to visit and we went to Columbia’s in Celebration. We hadn’t gone there all that much since the water incident. But it’s not that I’d put then on the banned list (it’s a short list. Jade Garden for taking 45 minutes to come and get our order and Panda Express for taking 45 minutes to get me pot stickers.)

So when we sat down and the waiter came to get our drinks, I informed him that a couple of times that we were there, we didn’t get any water whatsoever and we were very thirst. He was like and what did you want me to do? So I said, make sure that I am never out of water, which pre-empts any issues with anyone being thirsty as all hell. (some people in our party can make a big fuss about it.) Having told my waiter that, I was never out if water. So that was avoided, at least.

What’s funny was that the previous time that we had gone was my birthday about two months ago and the waiter who helped us also got the thirsty schpiel and he totally remembered me and said hello! Well, I don’t know what to think of that. I think I might have been put on the list of troublesome customers. But you know what? I don’t really care. Just make sure I have water!!

We also ordered sangria with some wine that comes with a little black bull. I have a collection of these bulls. We’ve ordered a lot of pitchers of sangria. The waiter asked how many glasses they’d need. When Chris’s dad said four, the waiter pointedly looked at me and asked for my ID, which never happens. Maybe it was because I gave him the water lecture. Maybe he really thought I might be underage. They never card me there. I’m in my mid-thirties people! But I showed him my ID so I could get an empty glass.

Interestingly enough, I also got a comment on a self-portrait I took of myself on Smugmug and someone had made a comment about how this person was old, but still pretty. I deleted the comment while calling the commented bad names.

The old but pretty comment was about this photo taken last month.

After dinner, we walked around town a bit, got some chocolate at Kilwin’s which makes their own chocolate goodies. Chris really likes the chocolate caramel pretzels, so I bought him some (and also got a little something for myself and the rest of the family).

While walking around, we saw some children throwing rocks into the lake. I wondered where the parents were since they were clearly taking rocks from the hotel landscaping. And expensive rocks at that. But then they shouted, “There it is!”

They pointed at something in the lake, which turned out to be a freakin’ alligator. Since the four years I’ve move here, I have never seen an alligator in the wild. And it was quite frightening to see that alligator in the lake because it is right next to the park where tons of kids play.

I wouldn’t have been so worried except that the alligator was swimming towards the place where the kids were throwing rocks which meant that this thing wasn’t afraid of people. Eventually, it will be caught and most likely euthanized because Florida has a very strict policy about alligators who aren’t afraid of people.

It’s sad because someone has been feeding this thing so that it’s no longer afraid of people. Whoever’s been feeding it has just given this thing a death sentence.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal