Smoking and meeting new people: even an introvert likes it.

 Rushing this blog out on the eve of my big trip

It's Saturday evening. Tomorrow I leave for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail bright and early. I packed and ran errands to prepare for the trip. I cleaned the house (because hubby and son won't clean it while I am gone). Finally I sat on my porch with a roaring fire in the pit, puffed on an Alec Bradley Texas Lancero, and sipped mocha decaf coffee with Irish Whiskey. And I typed this blog.

Enjoying a Lancero while writing this post

This week - smoking with company

While I will definitely follow up with some posts about my trip to Kentucky, this week I wanted to discuss smoking with people, and particularly meeting new people. As an introvert who expends most of her "social energy" with other people's kids teaching high school, I generally prefer to smoke alone and meditate and decompress after a long week at school, or even mid-week after a long day. And this is really only partially true, for I have made connections in the various smoking establishments I frequent: Bob and Joe at Shakers; Paul and Jen, and Jarrod and Nikki at Metro, and a few others. These are connections, however, made up of people who own and/or work in those places. I also smoke with my sister and brother-in-law, who have joined me at Shakers and at Metro. Otherwise, I have very rarely talked to other patrons. And then this past week it happened, on Sunday at Metro.

Spiking the coffee with Irish Whiskey since I'll be hitting bourbon all next week.

Sunday with Arturo Fuente, and three lovely people.

Teachers get the "Sunday Scaries" with the best of them. Last week I got my exercise and chores done, so I headed to Metro in Germantown to have a smoke, a Jack Daniels, and a quiet mediative session before returning home to make dinner. When I got there, I was reminded that Metro has new seats, and everyone is talking about them. On the east end of the lounge they are arranged in fours, with two seats facing each other. You have no choice but to look other cigar connoissuers in the eye! When I first sat down at around 1 pm, the seat next to me was empty but across from me were two men, one older and one younger. They were together and likely a father-son duo. They talked intently to each other, and the body language communicated that this was their one-on-one time, so I puffed on my Arturo Fuente Untold Story while I typed an itinerary for my Kentucky trip. I know that makes me sound like a nerd, but my bourbon and cigar tour was self-planned, so I had to coordinate tour times, check-in and check-out times, and driving times across Kentucky's bourbon country. 

Metro - Jack Daniels and Arturo Fuente

Eventually father and son left, and they were quickly replaced by three others, a brother and sister, and a lady who was their cousin. They were about 10-15 years younger than I, maybe in their forties. (I am 58). They lit up their smokes and sipped cocktails. I had at least half of my Fuente to smoke as I finished my itinerary, and as soon as I closed the doc on my laptop, the cousin asked me how long I had been smoking cigars. (Shit - I really had to think about it, lol.) Thirty years, I finally, said. The cousin commented that I must have started really young. And that was it. We engaged in at least two hours of conversation. First, I explained that, on my radar, cigar smoking was not a thing when I was young. Rather it seemed to become a thing in the 1990s when I was in my mid to late twenties, with cigar bars popping up in the Milwaukee area.

Secondly, and thirdly, and so on, I found out they were all professionally employed, and the brother had a side business selling cigars. They all had adult kids, as do I. We discussed how diverse the crowds were at all the cigar bars in and around town. The brother commented about how cigar smokers made up a subculture that crossed all demographics of people. And then the conversation became more familiar, talking about parenting, extended families, divorces, the tragedy and emotions involved with losing loved ones, and finally about getting older. Finally, I looked at the clock, and it was after 4 pm and I had to head home to start dinner!

Arturo Fuente Untold Story

At the very least, this was a good warm up to being more social with fellow patrons as I head to Kentucky by myself. However, for my future as a cigar buff, will it change me? I think mostly no - I will likely smoke alone and meditate a lot. But I will be more open to it. And sooner or later I will run into the brother, sister and cousin, and I will definitely sit by them and catch up! It was really meaningful. 

So that is all for this week's blog post. Stand by for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and its nearby cigar bars!