Last week, I went to a few work related Christmas parties, and I realized that I’m usually the only person there who doesn’t smoke.
I was just wondering, how many of you guys smoke? If you do smoke, how did you get started?
not me.
–
Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Nope, but I always thought it looked real cool.
(Actually I’ve smoked cloves but they’re hard to find around here so it’s a rare luxury.)
It may be that when an ornithologist says the Water Ouzel walks under the water, he only means that he has seen a Water Ouzel or some other bird sitting on a stone in the general vicinity of a body of water.
–Will Cuppy
April 1988: I tried cigarettes for the first time; I was 19. It was something my dad didn’t want me to do, so I decided to do it. Smoked sporadically after that until…
August 1988: I met my husband; he smoked about half a pack per day. I was at a half pack in about six months. I’d smoke more on the weekends, up to a pack and a half.
January 1995: I quit with the aid of the patch. My husband continued smoking and I joined him again in six months.
January 1996: We both quit.
January 1999: Met a new friend who would smoke when we drank beer together. We started smoking with him, but only with him.
August 1999: Husband buys cigarettes for the first time in over three years. I have a couple of cigarettes on weekends. He smokes one after work and maybe ten on weekends.
Once you start, it’s a bitch to quit.
Never start.
I only smoke when I’m drunk.
I only smoke during sex. Yep, I looked.
No, seriously. I’m a smoker. I started way back in high school (20 years ago) and smoked for a few years, quit for five and started again. How stupid is that?
“A zebra does not change its spots.”
~Al Gore, 1992~
I started smoking when I was 15, mostly a “hey, I’m seriously screwed up and suicidal, notice this because I’m smoking, dammit” sort of thing.
I attempted to quit six months ago. I lasted (even with the patch) for about a week before going completely psycho on my long-suffering girl-friend.
I now smoke a much lighter brand, and less than a pack a day (on average; I jump up to a pack-and-a-half during the extremely stressful points of my life).
I’m slowly falling out of smoking, slowly giving it up out of disgust and apathy. At some point in the next year I’ll try to quit again. However, the length of time before I quit is inversely proportional to how much other people bug me about it.
JMCJ
Die, Prentiss, Die! You will never have a more glorious opportunity!
Because it’s so damn cool, I only smoke pipes. And only the finest tobacco and pipe-weed ;).
Hell is Other People.
Started in 1984 in my Sophomore year of high school. I did it to fit in (it was the only thing not totally geeky about me) and because it would bug my parents.
I have been in a constant state of quitting for years. I am allergic to the patch. The gum wreaks havoc with my ulcer. I’ve been hypnotized. And, when I just try cold turkey I become a total bitch (I try really hard, I think I’m being extra nice and really in control, I make a concious effort to do so, but trusted friends always come to me and tell me the truth). I am currently in one of my “cutting back” phases.
Smoker. A pack of Gauloises a day. But my girlfriend convinved me to quit together come January 2, 2000. Because January 1 is for square people.
We’ll probably kill or seriously injure each other before January 10.
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Sake Samurai,
A friend of mine took up pipe smoking for a while. It looked too high maintenance to be much fun- he was constantly packing the stuff down, lighting, and re-lighting. Didn’t look too relaxing. I assume it’s different if you know what you’re doing?
Smoker…but I always smoke ultra-lights, so does it really count?
“Wednesday the 15th - Chris made one of her rare good points today.”
Guanolad
I used to, and quit in '82. I always knew it was a nasty-dirty-rotten-stinking habit that would kill me someday; although I enjoyed it I just needed a good excuse to quit, and getting engaged to my beautiful bride of 17 years :)was a great reason!
VB
“Hey! How 'bout that Toe Jam?”
I am the only person in my immediate family who does not, and have in fact never even tried. Both my parents smoked while I was growing up (and both of my mother’s parents, too). My mother stopped for several years, then started again; so did my dad. My sister started about age 13, and has never stopped (she’s 32 now). I have never even had one in my mouth, and have been virulently anti-smoking as long as I can remember.
“It’s my considered opinion you’re all a bunch of sissies!”–Paul’s Grandfather
Hoo-boy, I already got into trouble awhile back with my “why the hell do people still smoke?” thread. If I recall correctly, I brought the wrath of Satan down upon myself.
I was somewhat stunned at the NY SDMB meeting to discover that I was just about the only non-smoker . . . One reason I shan’t be attending any more IRL meetings (my eyes and throat stung for two days).
I used to feel nothing but contempt for smokers, but after discussing the matter here on the board, I just kinda feel sorry for 'em, the same as I’d feel about people addicted to alcohol, cocaine, heroin. Nearly all smokers started when they were too young and stupid to know any better (early teens, usually), and now they are just too hooked to give it up.
I hate seeing people I care about killing themselves . . . But basically, it’s their problem, not mine, as long as they don’t smoke around me.
Smoked one cigarette and coughed for three months; figured with my luck I’d die of lung cancer before my dad (a lifetime smoker) ever got sick, and never tried it again.
– Sylence
I don’t have an evil side. Just a really, really apathetic one.
Non-smoker. I took a big drag off a cig at the age of six and hacked up a lung, just like Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes. Never wanted to do it again, which is just as well. As addictive as my personality is, I’d never be able to quit. Shoot, I can’t even give up Cool Ranch Doritos.
Jodi
Fiat Justitia
Another pearl of wisdom from my father, the sage:
“Boy, anyone who smokes or chews will suck a dick.”
So, no, I don’t.
And the smell is terrible, too. I wake up after some bar nights thinking I wore an ashtray home as a hat.
“And he, he himself, the Grinch,
carved the roast beast.”
Non-smoker. I have heard it described as “fire on one end, fool on the other”. YMMV.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
Nonsmoker, particularly since I’m extremely asthmatic (I even have bronchitis right now. Happy holidays!) I used to be a very hostile antismoker, but as the antismokers have gotten so heavy-handed about it I find I no longer feel nearly as strongly. Just not around me, since it makes me wheeze.
My dad smokes pipes (yes, it does look cooler if one knows what one is doing). My mother’s doctor recommended she take up smoking (this was in the early '60s) to lose weight. Her father smoked like a fiend, and her brother, her sister and both their spouses all smoke, so she had better sense than to try to take it up.
The end result of this is that my idiot brother is the only one in my immediate family who smokes. He took it up – at age 26 – in part because he was an auto mechanic and is now a recording and sound engineer, and it appears to be a requirement in either line of work, rather like mustaches on cops.
Catrandom