5. Auberge Encore

After documenting the cocktail and it's surroundings, Ian and I set to catching up. By the time I finished my Gimlet I was bulletproof, and I think I may have been giving Ian a bit more grief than I should have. I've known Ian since I was 11 years old and he has been one of by best friends ever since. He is a great guy, world traveler, bon vivant, and in many ways, possibly more than any other of my friends, a kindred spirit. We went through many of the same things together. We were the weird, funny kids in junior high, we hung out on the outskirts of the cool kids but were never actually cool ourselves. We were straight edge, semi dorks freshman year, I can clearly remember the night at the beginning of sophomore year when we decided together we were going to start drinking and going to parties. We became interesting to girls at the same time (I lost 40lbs between freshman and sophomore year, he lost his glasses and the over the top weirdness, all of a sudden girls approached us, which was good, cause neither of us had the guts to approach them ), sometimes, the same girls, at about the same time. (Not like that you sicko) We were both longhaired hippie Defensive Ends on the J.V. football team Sophomore year, we both went out for the team Senior year, he played the whole season, I lasted three days (got in the way of Nap Time. . . Alright, AOL Chat room time, whatever, don't judge me.). You get the idea, he is as close to a brother as I've ever had, and we've grown apart a bit in recent years. More to the point, he has grown up and changed in a lot of positive ways. I have as well of course, but I've grown into an older, chubbier, more self-confident and self-aware version of my younger self. He has discovered new interests, and abandoned a lot of the old ones which we shared. I still like Phish and Taco Truck, probably as much as I did when I was 16. In fact I wore a pair of pants I've had since high school to a 3 day Phish Festival at the end of this trip.(They used to be WAY too big for me) He doesn't eat meat, wears designer jeans and goes to places that serve 20 dollar Gimlets. I think I may have heckled him a bit too much, it was probably mostly cause I was worried about losing one of my oldest friends. And maybe I was feeling a little fat that day, its really hard to say. The worries were unfounded, and the heckling unnecessary. Im sorry buddy, I had a blast. We were certainly enjoying ourselves when this 2nd pic was taken.