Up, Down, and All Over The Map w/ Buttons and Jules (Part 1):

"...his face wasn't weathered so much as marked of character. Something almost cowboy about him."



I thought I’d caught the blog up last week--or at least started the process; but now I see I’m forever behind. A whole ‘nother week of my life’s gone by. Lost and wasted--though certainly not wasted. Not in New York with Buttons and her boyfriend (Jules). They visited for a week and man--they got it, by which I mean New York. Those two know how to have fun.

I’ve known Buttons for years--she’s the sister of my friend Rules. But I’d never met Jules before this visit.

We all met up in midtown on Saturday (December 3rd). Their flight had landed at JFK a few hours earlier, but of course they had no jetlag. Not Buttons. In fact both seemed fueled with the pent-up mania of sustained cabin pressure and cramped quarters suddenly released on urban NYC.

I’d never met Jules before; yet he greeted me with a real smile and a familiar pat on the back as the three of us walked round Herald Square in search of a pub. To get acquainted. At some point--in mid conversation, Jules suddenly stopped where we were on the sidewalk and noted the building.

“Hey Lodo, does this happen to be a post office?”

“Yeah man. Why?--you need something?”

“Actually,” he said as his gloved hands fumbled with the inside pocket of his overcoat, "would you mind putting this in an inside box for me? If you’d do that, Buttons and I could run across the street and buy a couple of shooters. What d’ya like--scotch?”

“Yeah, I like Johnnie if you’re offering. Sure.”

So I accepted the document-sized envelope from Jules and ran it inside to a mailbox. Didn’t think anything of it, and when I returned outside, there were Jules and Buttons across the street waving me over. Expectantly. Something in Button’s eager wave that kind of irritated me though I quickly shrugged it off and reminded myself not to get anxious round her charged energy.

“Hey man, did you mail that for me?” Jules asked as he handed me a shooter of Johnny Walker out a paper bag.

“Yeah, man. I dropped it in the box.”

“Oh that’s great Lodo. I like the way you did that.”

“Did what?” I asked as I twisted the cap off my bottle.

“The way you mailed that for me. Thanks. I really didn’t want to deal with all those steps, but you just were able to run up and mail it. And that’s great. So now listen, what do you want to do tonight?”

“Well, I’d kind of...”

“Anything you want to do Lodo. You name it,” Jules insisted as he tilted back a shooter of his own. Buttons hung on his arm with a huge smile on her face like a schoolgirl; and in fact, Jules was a lot older than I’d expected. He had deep wrinkles round his leaden eyes that sat deep in his skull; though his face wasn’t weathered so much as marked of character. Something almost cowboy about him despite his wool overcoat and fedora. The freedom of excess. And excesses taken.

“Well, I’d kind of like to watch the Miguel Cotto/Antonio Margarito fight. You guys probably wouldn’t be into that, but...that’s what I’d do tonight. We can meet after that if you want.”

“And where’s that gonna be?” Jules asked.

“Well the fight’s at The Garden, but I’d just go to a bar and watch it. Otherwise its gonna be a hundred dollars just to get in.”

Jules and Buttons exchanged a glance.

“Well we could afford that,” said Jules as he flippantly tossed his empty shooter into the street.

* NOTE: Due to the length of this post, I'm gonna split it into another part. Part 2 shouldn't take long.

** ADDITIONAL NOTE: All pics stolen off Google Images except for # 1. All rights reserved on my pic.