The quit smoking thread

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 7:04 am

That's right, as of 8:30 am I had my last cigarette, a Newport Light. (Then at 9:15 I had my other last cigarette, a Marb menthol I found)
I'll keep you maggots posted.

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 7:06 am

Also: September is over. I am no longer the forum methhead. I have turned over a new leaf (one without any money for cigarettes on the other side) and will be free from my addictions, including that meth addiction that has been creeping all month. Removing my custom title is the first step towards recovery.

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 10:19 am

1:17: Adam W. invites me for a smoke. I... decline.
This is a major step because not only does Adam W. bum me cigarettes almost constantly, he has also been known to smoke two in a row (and hence give me two)

Vitriola · Post by **Vitriola** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 10:56 am

I quit on Sunday, my birthday. I have had a couple since then, just to use up the pack. There is one left in said pack. It will be my last one. I am not so naive to think that I'll ever be so good that, if I'm drunk in a bar, or kicking Jonsey's ass at a game of pool, that I won't have one, but, it's sure as hell not the half-pack a day I had been doing right up until the point where I moved out here. No mas!

Speaking of No Mas, there's a drink of that appalation that involves one sinking a shot of cheap tequila into a Corona. I think I'll leave that one alone.

How ya doin', Jack?

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:12 am

Well, I've quit in the past but always seem to start back up while drunk or on one of my regular meth binges. I think the plan is to get realistic with myself and realize I am going to keep doing this. I'm gonna try to not smoke during the day/when I'm sober, and not beat myself up when I get a pack to go out drinking with. I'm sure eventually I won't want to smoke if I don't smoke normally.. I think that a pack of cloves just for partying could work for me.

Of course, then I'm just half-quitting but I look at it like I get all the good benefits - more break time at work, won't be late to class because smoking on break, more $$ in pocket, etc. but then I'll also get to smoke when I'm out drinking and we all know how a cigarette every once in awhile gets you a HEADY buzz. That's how most people I know got started.. the shit knocks you down your first cigarette. Know how long it's been since I caught a buzz on a cigarette?

Oh, and in case it wasn't painstakingly obvious, I've never even tried meth. Had some half-ass crank once tho..

Vitriola · Post by **Vitriola** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:29 am

Jack Straw wrote:Had some half-ass crank once tho..

The last time I ordered half-ass skank they tried the bait-and-switch on me, too, and I've never been back.

I honestly know people who will smoke 1 cigarette a year, or a couple cigarettes, only if they've had >8 beers, or any combination you can think of. It's not always true that having a couple will lead you into a life of crime of nicotine. That's what i'm hoping for here, but, if ever I DO buy a pack for partying, instead of just getting a couple from a friend for a drink or something, I'm going to be sure to give the rest of the pack away at the end of the night.

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:30 am

I never started, You're a turkey.

Vitriola · Post by **Vitriola** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:32 am

You're a mean, hateful, pompous, and spitefull little man. Great lifestyle choice you got going there. Sign me up for misery and frustration for the rest of my days, ok?

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:23 pm

Yeah, that 'just started smoking' buzz was something. I also smoke more than one cigarette at a time fairly often, especially since I've been switching to lighter cigarettes.

Good luck to you, Jack. It's been about a week and a half for me (after a week of smoking after a week of non-smoking). I usually do the gum, but I've just going cold turkey these last couple time.

Not quite sure if I'm ready to go to the bar yet, but I'm going to go catch a show next Monday, so we'll see.

Vitriola · Post by **Vitriola** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:24 pm

UPDATE:

I just had my last cigarette. Best smoke of my life. It's the end of an era. All downhill from here. Nothing will ever be good, ever again.

Roody_Yogurt · Post by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:26 pm

At the zoo, I once was explaining to a coworker what it's like to quit smoking, and there was a little boy crying that he couldn't go on the merry-go-round. I was like, every time I tell myself I can't have a cigarette, I'm that little kid who can't go on the fun ride.

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:40 pm

Maybe the Orc's head should be the quitting base.

Quitting's for losers. And UPDATE: 15 minutes ago I saw Adam W. in the hall and he, again, invited me out for a smoke. (great buddy right) I, again, declined. +1

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:54 pm

In other news, I have decided to start smoking today.

Mmm-mmm! The flavor! I don't know why you guys are quitting. I love unwrapping a fresh pack and just twirling the cellotape around with my fingers before opening it up completely. I like rapping the pack up against a nice hard surface so that all the delicious tobacco packs nicely together.

Opening up the pack, completely, for the first time is just outright sexy. I love to breath in the aroma: that harsh, humid, yet altogether alive blooming fragrance that I pretend comes from the deep south (if it's not a pack of Camels) or Arabia (if it is).

Picking out the first cigarette of that fresh pack is always a treat as well. I don't have a system! Nothing like that, heh. I instead like to think that the pack, at first, is worrying. The cigarettes all quietly jockeying for position, trying to not be the first to enter the maw of their new master. Invariably, I select the one trying the hardest to not be noticed, and raise it up towards me. I do not like to hold the others down and flip the pack and let gravity make my first fall down towards me. Rather, I enjoy just picking it out myself with my bare hands... so as to best provide an intimate moment for it before its inevitable oblivion.

I again breath in deeply with my victim right between my index and middle fingers. I sometimes thing to myself that the poor thing is likely trembling, but no matter. "It will all be over soon, my precious..."

Then. Fire.

I follow with my prey now close, right up to my lips. I try to make it comfortable, but it doesn't matter if I do, as it won't have to be comfortable for very long. I bring the match to the end and breath in deep, lighting it more through willpower and hunger for nicotine than anything else.

That first puff... that first achingly delicious puff. I live for moments like that. I exist only to tug, to pull, to breath in deep, to make it mine, to conquer it... to become one with the cigarette, almost.

I then suck it down as greedily as possible. They do not last long once in my mouth, haw haw!

And when I have sucked it dry for all its worth, and when it can no longer provide relief against my insatiable cravings, I give it one last look, a knowing smile and silently whisper a "goodbye..."

... Before stamping it out and crushing it within the tray.

I look to the pack and the others have all fallen in line. They know their fates. It will not be much different. Others may find that it is not their master who will consume them, rather, he will loan them out as if they were inconsequential pieces of property. But they will all now worship. They will all now obey. They will light easily, they will provide their goodness freely, they will give themselves into me.

And I just consume that nicotine and consume and consume and consume.

Smoking is one of the greatest activities in the world, and I cannot wait until I can have one again. I am counting down the minutes and just plain shaking over here.

Mmm-mmmm!

Vitriola · Post by **Vitriola** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:01 pm

A REAL smoker would've thrown the lit butt onto someone's lawn, or out their car window. You're like a dog owner who doesn't share their beer with their pooch, or give him a longneck of his own in his doggy dish. You're like the guy that loses to his woman at pool, while playing Foreigner songs on the juke. What a sorry, unAmerican mess you are.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:15 pm

Vitriola wrote:A REAL smoker

I'm not a real smoker. I just enjoy the taste and texture of cigarettes. Real smokers are disgusting. It's like going somewhere with an animate catcher's mitt. I am glad you are all giving it up: when I go back for Christmas there is a good chance that I will go to a Blue Jays meet-and-greet and I would not want Roy Halladay to just happen by and begin throwing fastballs into your and Straw's mug.

Would've thrown the lit butt onto someone's lawn or out their car window.

My car is much too nice to allow people to smoke in it. Even if the flavor is straight out of flavor country.

You're like the guy that loses to his woman at pool, while playing Foreigner songs on the juke. What a sorry, unAmerican mess you are.

You play pool at altitude like how old people fuck at altitude.

Jethro Q. Walrustitty · Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:22 pm

First off, smokers, "smacking the pack" does nothing. It doesn't "pack" anything. It's just part of the pointless ritual. It's like tapping the top of a soda can. (Like a cool, frothy can of Vitre-Cola.)

Secondly... A serious question, here. For those quitting - why would you want to even have a single cigarette occasionally? Are there some situations where it's good to have the foul smell around you? Are you just looking for something to do with your hands? And, you do realize that you probably won't be able to smoke while drinking, unless you do it in your own home, thanks to the anti-smoking laws? (And if you can now, you probably won't be able to for long.)

There's lots of things I don't understand in this world, but the desire to smoke by some people - the actual desire, not the need brought on by addiction - is pretty near the top of the list. I mean, it has no redeeming values (smelly/dirty/messy, to say nothing of addictive and expensive), and it's hardly "rebellious" as you're directly supporting some pretty huge companies who don't care about you (since they want you to smoke) as well as paying plenty of money to Big Brother thanks to the taxes.

Vitriola · Post by **Vitriola** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:37 pm

First off, smokers, "smacking the pack" does nothing. It doesn't "pack" anything.

Actually, it does. Not that I do this, but I have noticed that an unsmacked pack is looser, and burns faster than a smacked one.

Secondly... A serious question, here. For those quitting - why would you want to even have a single cigarette occasionally?

Psychology. If I 'quit', you bet your bic that I'll be out there an hour later at the Safeway 'Safeway' brand 'Safeway' gas station buying a pack. I can't quit. Knowing that I'll probably have one this weekend takes about 99% of the pressure off. Besides, look, I know well enough that when I'm drunk, I'm going to have one, quitting or no. Why not just skip the declarations to the opposite, and admit what we all know is going to happen?

And, you do realize that you probably won't be able to smoke while drinking, unless you do it in your own home, thanks to the anti-smoking laws?

Not that I want to overregulate anything, but I'm actually behind the no-smoking in public places law. No reason why someone else should have to breathe in smoke just because I enjoy a cigarette while waiting for my filet mignon and eating my nacho platter. Fuck individuality and free market, the reason smokers want to smoke in bars is because it's fucking fun; it's not the same without cigarettes and beer at the same time, and, until establishments let you take your drink out to the smoking area, it's going to cause a riot everytime someone brings it up.

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:40 pm

Jethro Q. Walrustitty wrote:Are there some situations where it's good to have the foul smell around you?

Absolutely.

Are you just looking for something to do with your hands? And, you do realize that you probably won't be able to smoke while drinking, unless you do it in your own home, thanks to the anti-smoking laws?

Situations such as "Joey's on Main st" in which bars extend their collective middle finger to the lawmakers trying to control their businesses. Even some bars that enforced the smoking ban are starting to turn a blind eye - because patronage is down. If people can't smoke and drink they don't want to be there. We'll start to see bars close, which may very well be a motivating factor by the moral police.

Jack Straw · Post by **Jack Straw** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:42 pm

Vitriola wrote:
First off, smokers, "smacking the pack" does nothing. It doesn't "pack" anything.
Actually, it does. Not that I do this, but I have noticed that an unsmacked pack is looser, and burns faster than a smacked one.

Of course it fucking works. "I've never smoked a cigarette and hate them, but I know more about what packing does than all of you smokers" Fudge-packing, maybe.

Keza · Post by **Keza** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:46 pm

Having had half my family killed by cancer (I'm not joking here - BOTH parents and much of the rest of my family have had it), smoking is not the most encouragable of occupations as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, INCREASE that 61% chance I have of getting cancer by ENCOURAGING cell mutation and breathing shit that was never meant to be breathed!Thankfully, however, Scotland hates smokers, so at least the temptation rarely presents itself.