Funny thing happened. I returned to my site later in the day and the edit item...edit item is gone..I can see it present as display block in the web developer browser tools..it is set to allow front end editing, and i can add items via menu link. My user is set to a group with allowed access to category and i have not touched k2.css or created a override template yet. Any idea whats wrong?

Did you install any other extensions?

I can see it present as display block

This means that the form is indeed visible but a possible css conflict is hiding it. This is most likely a visual issue. I will need a link with some demo credentials to troubleshoot it.