A Day With Myself/A Night With Friends pt.2

So, I'm back. And after a bite to eat Amanda and I were back at Flanagan's. Sitting at the bar was the 33 year old, crippled, art gallery owner named Taylor I had been briefly introduced to the day before and we joined him for a drink; gin and tonics. Taylor introduced us (introducing Amanda as Batman; a nickname he was proud to have been so clever to devise) to a scrub-wearing man in his mid 20's named Lee who was seated next to him at the bar. Lee had just opened a vet with his father a few store fronts down from Taylor's art gallery in the quarter. (I still think the french quarter is a strange, and rather small, place to open up a full service animal hospital.) We began talking about art, records, different bars I needed to visit on my trip, whether Taylor should next move his art gallery to Seattle or Brooklyn, etc etc, and even though I was the quite one sitting at the end of the line Taylor couldn't help but comment on how he thought I seemed like a great guy (he had also started drinking several hours before us). By this time I was on my first beer and Taylor ordered everyone to take a shot of Jameson and join him afterward for more drinks at his place before our next stop that evening. (He really just had to do laundry before it got too late.) So after we were all done we set off towards his living space that resided right between the bar and Amanda's house.

I'm not sure whether to call Taylor's place a house or an apartment because it fell into the category of a lavish example between the two definitions. We entered his building down and alleyway and through a beautifully decorated courtyard that was the center of several of these different living spaces. His was located on the bottom floor of one of the brick building on our left. Through huge wooden doors we entered, essentially what is my dream apartment. The entire place was paneled with the same dark wood and lighter trim as the doors; a feature Taylor claims the previous owner, a retired boat captain, had put in. Cluttered about the living room were all different kinds of books, records, and expensive pieces of artwork. He was modest enough to point out his original Salvador Dali print. In front of us was a narrow spiral staircase that led to a small second floor landing, which consisted of shelves of the same wood lined with more books, records, and CD's. By this point I was salivating all over the room. He poured the three of us (Amanda abstained) another shot of Jameson and put on his favorite album by The Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs; cranking it up to full volume during his favorite ones. After he threw in his laundry and a short explanation of the huge 3-paneled painting he had covering an entire wall we decided to go out to a bar called Yuki for some saké. Amanda had never tried it before and Lee claimed to be a self-taught connoisseur of the drink. The bar was at the same intersection as Amanda's house and had a 4-piece string band playing at the entrance. We chose a large enough table in the back surrounded by bamboo poles and prints of Japanese artwork. Lee was nice enough to pick out and pay for 2 bottles of very nice, dry, filtered saké. It reminded me nothing of rice and actually had a warm, buttery aftertaste. We eventually got around to the subject of me trying to find work while I was here but they laughed when I told them I would only be in town for the month. They promised to let me know if they could find someone to dump me on and Taylor also mentioned that he knew some people in Portland that might need help while I was there.
Our plan next was to go to Our Bar for more drinks but Lee, who had yet to mop the vet floors, said he had to leave and we decided to call it a night. Before we parted ways Taylor, Amanda, and I had a quick stop for $2 tacos at a bar across the street that had loud brass music blaring from the front entrance. As we parted Taylor gave me his number saying that sometime soon him, his brother, his business partner, and I were all going to go out for a boys night on the town so he could show me around some of the places he had been telling me about throughout the evening.