I wish I never started smoking either! I quit eight years ago - almost nine now. I hate the way it looks, and the way it smells!
I quit for money, and all the reasons not to smoke. It seems like it's a never ending cycle, but that's only if you let it be. I was determined after trying to quit eight times - the last time I just stayed away from people who smoked, and the places that we hung out when we did it. This helped me to psyche myself up for it. I went for walks, and rode a bicycle for two years just to keep my mind off such a filthy habit! Almost all my friends quit smoking now. If you want to - you will. If you don't want to - you won't! remember what Yoda said: "Do, or do not. There is no try." All the people who say they want to quit, don't. All those who quit never say it, they just do it. I didn't say " I want to quit smoking" - I said "I'm going to quit smoking!" I just couldn't decide when. I figured that I was smoking away my youth, my health, and my money. All the best years of my life are now gone forever - I don't want to destroy what's left too! People don't realise that smoking is no more than a choice they made knowing they'd become addicted, they just didn't know how hard.
It's a matter of what quality of life you choose for yourself, and for your children when you make such choices that are destructive - both to the body, and soul. I hate it when I go to the store, and I smell someone who walks by wreaking of death, and cat piss odor! (That's the only way I can describe it) I say "Smoke much?" (Obviously like a chimney) My mom had a guy come to paint her tub (don't ask!) and it chipped after three years, and it needed to be repaired. I stayed there so he could come while she was at work. The companies' owner painted it the first time, then his son came to fix it the last time - he smelled so strong of cigarette odor that her living room stunk for three hours after he showed up! I wouldn't call this guy to paint a dog turd in my back yard after this. Bath tubs aren't made to be painted once coated with baked enamel, or porcelain! This, and the urethane finish he uses are incompatible with the cold, and heat variaces experienced in her house. I don't why you'd want this unless you were reselling your house, and didn't want to spring for a new shower, or tub.
All in all, this is just a nasty, filthy, garbage habit to have, and the tabacco tycoons know it! I once watched a show on the Learning channel (TLC). There was a model that used to pose for Camel ads. He admitted that he knew what it was like before he quit smoking, and couldn't breathe because of his addiction. He said: "One time I went to the factory to discuss a new ad campaign, and noticed NO SMOKING signs everywhere. There were no ashtrays either, not even in the boardroom. I said something about it to the owners, and reps of the company, and their reply was: "Hell no we don't smoke this shit! We reserve the right to sell to the young, the black, the poor, and the stupid"! That should tell you something about the mentality of them all". DON'T SMOKE - if you do, QUIT!! Our state is going to a nationwide ban on it, as it's so widespread, and such a health hazard. Everyone here's sick of it! Let me put a little spin on this whole thing when I was a smoker in the Painters local # 469. We were assigned to paint the Auburn Indiana foundry #2, and we had to wear hazmat type uniforms. We were required to wear respirators too. I removed the plastic from the respirator cartriges, and put them into my 3M respirator mask. I put it on. I couldn't smell anything, except the cigarette smoke our guys blew into the air around us in the room we painted in. When I had the mask on - it smelled like stale peanut butter when I inhaled. Nothing else, not even the M.E.K. that we used to cut our paint with was strong enough to be smelled through it. This is the main ingredient in paint solvents, and it still wasn't nearly as aromatic as the cigarette smoke poison polluting our air! I hate it when I go to a friends' house that smokes (them, not the house), and it smells so bad when I leave that I have to come home to take a shower, and wash all my clothes, and nothing smells, or tastes good for the next twenty four to thirty six hours later!! There's definately something wrong with a product that you have to put in your face, and set fire to! If I told you to go outside, and burn a weed in your yard, and inhale the fumes from it - you'd think I was crazy! It's stupid to put a weed sprayed with all kinds of filty, carcinogenic (cancer causing) chemicals into a piece of paper, then put a tampon in the end of it, then burn it to inhale those chemicals which are known to cause cancer. Stupid really.
~ LC
