Smokin'

For 11 years of my life, almost every spare, stressful or sad moment in my life was marked by lighting a cigarette and proceeding to smoke it.

3 weeks ago I smoked my last cigarette. I couldn't tell you that there was one defining moment that made my mind up for me. There was just a combination of factors ranging from "cigarettes are costing me a tropical vacation every year" to "I'm sick of wheezing when I wake up".

The biggest trouble is that I've smoked for almost my entire adult life. I don't have any experiences that relate to me not smoking, except for the 20 some odd times I quit before. Everytime I got dumped/botched a job interview/got in a fight with my best friend/had my dog run away/received a disconnection notice in the mail, etc etc etc, I lit up. I didn't know any other way to cope with my stress.

I'm not sure I'm any better with it, but I will tell you that if you seriously want to quit -- buy a lot of cleaning supplies. First, you'll be so bloody happy that your house doesn't smell like the pub you snuck into when you were 15, anymore, that you'll blissfully clean and clean and clean just to get every last residual bit out. Secondly, it works wonderfully for keeping you busy. And a busy ex-smoker remains an ex-smoker.

I will say that prior to this, my longest 'quit' was a month when I was back in high school. I smoked whatever I could steal from my parents back then, as opposed to the pack a day-ish habit I had up until recently, so I'm feeling a lot more optimistic than I have in times past.

Actually. Scrap that. I am a non smoker now.