As of a couple of hours ago, I am a nonsmoker. I have been a not-a-nonsmoker exactly half my life, with breaks for bearing, birthing, and nursing my girls.I've known I ~needed~ to quit since the day I started. I just never really wanted to.
Well, I did, but I didn't. I wanted to quit for my health and to live long enough to be a burden to J and inhale less money, especially in recent years, but, well... The fact is I ~liked~ it.
I liked that it forced me to take a few minutes for myself.
I liked that, especially in these smoker-unfriendly days, it gave me an instant bond when I was in a group of strangers (at work, at conferences, etc) because we already had something in common, and as a collective group were persecuted for it.
I liked that it gave me an outlet for stress. Does a cigarette reduce stress levels? No, if anything it probably makes it worse, elevating the blood pressure and decreasing the amount of oxygen in the blood. But it gave me a minute to take time out and (not) breathe and relax and think and just, well, time.
Time I would otherwise not take for myself. The flipside of that, since I have gone to ridiculous lengths to ensure J did not know her mama sucked cancer sticks, is that I also used to make time to smoke. I didn't smoke anywhere near my house for a long time. Instead I would loop the neighborhood a few times on the way home from the grocery store til I'd finished. Or drive to a store twice as far away so I'd have time to smoke.
No more.
Did I quit for my health? Sure.
Did I quit to save money? Sure.
But mostly I quit because I had to.
See, I was a particular smoker. With the exception of the occasional deviation in emergencies when I couldn't find what I wanted, I smoked cloves exclusively, and a particular variety at that. --->
And I am old and set in my ways and I know what I want/like. And if I can't have what I like, I just won't do it.
And Uncle Sam says I can't have what I like. Someone decided that cloves were too much like the flavored cigs that Camel tried to make a few years ago (read that as Gateway Cigarettes-like other 'gateway' drugs) and they were no longer available for sale as of 9/22/09. I found out about the
I am ~glad~ for the ban for the simple reason that it is forcing me to do something I've known I needed to do, but didn't want bad enough to do for myself.
That said... I'm still fomenting my rant about this because it's a stupid logic. If I start following this path I'll rant early and I want to save it for Tuesday, it's been too long.
Net result: Government being stoopid=good for Dy's lungs. Umm... yay?
(this post is both informational and a warning. In case I get all classic quit-smoking-nic-fit-bitchy, well, this is your warning and probably the only one you're going to get.)
PS - Anyone wanna give me odds on how long it takes RaidMan to notice I've quit? lol...
1 comment:
Congratulations, and good for you!
Both of my parents used to smoke. I don't know when Dad gave it up (not that I actually remember either doing it), but Mom did on Mothers Day when I was about seven - so I'd continue to have one to celebrate it with.
Her trick for sticking to it was to put the money she would have spent aside - at home at first, then into a bank account. Every time she thought about "just having one," she looked at the balance, and her psychotically-frugal side took over. (This is a woman who would use coupons at the dollar store.) I have no clue what she eventually did with the money, or when she stopped putting it aside, but it definitely worked.
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