Smokers @ MindSay

Participants become ex-smokers in just 3 weeks.

The course has the highest documented success rate in the country.  Living Free™ has helped over 200,000 participants stop smoking yielding results three to five times better than any other leading program.  LivingFree™ is the most effective program in the U.S. and will enable you to stop smoking with pride and dignity, without feeling deprived and without gaining weight.

Here's to you, O Fellow Smoker, sitting in your plastic chair and sparking up a fag, just like me, right outside your apartment door, just like me, not ten feet away from me, not three drags ahead or behind me. Here's to you, determinedly looking away--but for surreptitiously curious glances--from every other living thing, just like me, and fiercely refusing, like me, to make conversation. Inevitably, one of us stands to leave, glancing awkwardly, nearly apologetically, at the five or six others also indulging in our sick, carcinogenic ritual. someone grunts, unimpressed, in dismissal and the cigarette-finisher leaves. Heres to us, the cancerous isolationists; may our silence weigh heavier with every drag and may it not be quelled with the snubbing of the cherry.

I'm having so much fun with this boy. He treats me so well and appreciates that I treat him well. So...accepting of who I am. Most non-smokers have this...vendetta against smokers and a cynicism for smokers who are trying to quit and struggling to do so, but there's none of it. He loves that I'm trying, applauds the success I'm having, but doesn't begrudge me slip-ups or regression. And he knows the crap I went through and doesn't judge me for it. I just...love the acceptance. I love his whole demeanor. So...in tune with my own. And well...as you can see, he's pretty easy on the eyes, too.

Here's my only hesitation: He lives in Sacramento. I mean, it's Sac, not Spain. But he's been gone for a little over 12 hours, and I already want to go down and see him. It worries me that he's a) already talking about me needing to move to Sac and b) that I'm looking for loopholes and ways to make that work without feeling like I'm jumping into it. Mostly just a matter of finding a way to feel comfortable with the intensity of my feelings.

Am I still allowed to complain about taxes?
or will my freedom of speech also be taxed
in the next bill that just flies through?

New 160% Increase in Tobacco Tax
To Take Effect Wednesday ...
On Wednesday, the federal tax will go
 from 39 cents per pack to $1.01.

I know tobacco taxes are popular politically, but

I'm tired of hearing about how non-smokers are

paying for smokers' health care costs.

Did they not hear about this?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-05-obese-cost_N.htm

Those who don't have time to click, here are

the average health care costs after the age of 20 for:

Smokers - $326,000
Obese people - $371,000
Thin, healthy non-smokers - $417,000

Why?

Healthy people live longer and

have more time to rack up bills.

Fat smokers die sooner.

Morbid? Sure. Actuarial?

Certainly. But factual? Yep.

I would guess fat people and smokers also
 go to the doctor less in general.
 I know why I'm not healthy,
I just ate half a pack of hot dogs.

Give it a year if every smoker quits ,
then the government will be crying
 we're not getting enough taxes.
 dont believe me?
 look what happened when gas went to $4 a gallon.
 People started driving smarter and saved on gas and taxes.
The government started crying we arent collecting
enough taxes for the roads and highways.

Smokers are left with only 5 choices that I can think of.

-Pay the tax and move on

-Quit smoking

-or get these www.invisismoke.com
-or               www.CIGoutlet.com
-or               Indian reservations

Don't drink, don't smoke, eat healthy...die anyway!

Fuck it. I’m totally just going to smoke. There’s no point denying it, especially with the people I hang out with. Okay, really only Nick. But Nick is kind of a big part of my life right now. I only smoke once or twice when we hang out, and he kind of gets that I don’t smoke in front of Natalie, without me even saying anything. He just gets it. I don’t know. He’s just wonderful. Why does he have to be wonderful? I’ve always hated those dumb girls who say stuff like that, but I’m totally there. He’s not presumptuous or anything. He walked a good 3+ miles with me, and from what I could tell, he enjoyed just walking and talking with me. He’s been very conscious of my unspoken rule of no contact and is only pushing it a little, and that little is way less than I would let him get away with. I have a weird thing about being touched. Until I know you fairly well and thus trust you, you don’t get to touch me. You just don’t. I love hugs, I love being touched, but I have to trust you a lot. He’s only just now started asking for hugs. He holds me close for a little longer than necessary but not longer than propriety or my hackles dictate against, lets go, smiles, and thanks me for spending time with him. I play it cool, thank him for spending time with me, and walk him to the door.
The sad truth? I’m thanking him a million times over for even thinking about me. I’m a total head case. I analyze everything in minute detail, both as it happens and in my alone time. And while I would totally LOVE for things to jump right to the steamy romance thing, I love things the way they are. I know a lot of people say this, but if it just stayed this way forever, I wouldn’t feel any loss. I’d still long for more (I’ll be honest—he’s a MAJOR catch), but if that’s not what he wants, I won’t ask for more. And that’s all I’ll say on the matter. For now. :)
Wow. I definitely veered WAY off-topic. Smoking. Yeah, I know. It causes cancer. It rots your teeth. I know all the effects of smoking, I know. Most of my family is either in the medical field or suffering because of their nasty habit. I get it. It’s bad for you. Ugh! And I hate it. I hate smoking with a passion. But I hate it in the sense that I obsess over it. I deny myself until I get pushed just a little too hard. And I’ve discovered that giving in to the craving makes the craving much less potent. I know, that’s called appeasing the nicotine fiend. But my cravings right now are MUCH less strong than they were last week when I flat-out refused to smoke. Last week, just the smell of someone who had smoked in the last few hours was enough to set off my cravings. Right now, I’m surrounded by smokers, and I’m wearing clothes that smell like cigarettes, but I’m not craving even in the least bit. So I’ve decided that smoking is my vice. I don’t smoke enough that it interferes with my life. I don’t even smoke every day. But self-denial feels way more destructive than allowing myself a dirty little habit every now and again.