2003-09-30 - 1:20 a.m.

Smoking ban smears its high-mindedness all up in my face tomorrow night (Tuesday night).

Every time I leave a place, an apartment, a dorm room, I always smoke one last butt, in honor of.

Tonight was my last butt at the People�s Republik in Cambridge.

There was a small Monday crowd, Monday Night Football and good (and very un-football) music weirding it�s way up to make me happy. Cool weather outside the pretty picture window, me and the Roommate, warm, inside the smoky bar.

Smoky bar.

Smoky bar.

Smoky bar.

Three girls chatting it up, butts on the table, lighers on top of the packs, just like me. I don't think any of us stumblers, any of us who vote but can't see it counting, none of us let on that we believed that we really aren't going to enjoy our freedom to smoke in a bar very, very soon.

Fuckers. I stubbed my butt out in the familiar (but ten years from now, not so very familiar) black plastic ash tray. Not so generic years from now. Last butt in a Cambridge bar.

Tomorrow is my last butt at the Abbey. Last butt in a Somerville bar, last butt in a Massachusetts bar, I think.