Yesterday, I ended up going to Harvard Square in search of some cigars - which I’ve recently grown to enjoy on an occasional basis.

I ended up at Leavitt and Peirce (I guess formal names allow for grammatical rule-breaking), which is one of the coolest stores I’ve been to in a long time - one I hope to return to before I leave.  It’s said to have been around for over 100 years and is definitely a guy’s kind of store.  Cigars, pipes, tobacco, chess and go sets, classic shaving supplies, etc.

Since I’m new to the world of cigars, and since I wanted to get something that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to get anywhere else, I asked the guy behind the counter for some recommendations for an average cigar, then another one or two that he thinks are relatively unique to his shop.

Dude was totally cool and very helpful, and based on a comment he made, I assume he’s brothers with the owner (or a co-owner).  Totally recommended to anyone.

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I got home last night to an apartment full of people.  They were going out to a bar to send off a friend of theirs who’s going to UT Austin…a university that sounds familiar, and my favorite city in the world (if it weren’t so hot, there’d be no question that I’d live there).  At first, I declined the offer to join, but quickly decided it would be a good time, and it was.

We ended up going to a place called Tavern on the Water, which had one of the best views of Boston that I’ve seen.  I definitely wouldn’t mind ending up there another night before I leave.

I ended up getting to talk with Joey and Kate for most of the night - Joey is the roommate whose old room is now my room - for quite a while last night.  They ended up telling me a lot about Boston that I hadn’t known about, and we were engaged in good conversation the whole night.  This is all in spite of my knocking a passerby’s glass of wine all over Joey early in the night.  Excellent, the sober guy party-fouls.

In addition to great conversation with Joey and Kate, there was no shortage of great people watching, and meeting some cool new people that I hope to get to see again here in Boston or in other cities.

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When I got home after the night’s festivities, I sat out on the back porch with my thoughts and an Ashton Magnum, one of the cigars I picked up earlier.  Definitely a good, well-balanced cigar.  Most of all, it was a good relaxing moment to myself to celebrate the one-week mark.

One week down, 51 weeks to go.