STILL SMOKING

Still smoking. I'm lingering at about half a pack (10 cigarettes) a day. I thought I would be able to cut it down right away, but I couldn't. I laid out 5 cigarettes for the day but after I finished them I couldn't make it through the rest of the day smokeless. Well, I could have but no one would want to be around me. So I guess I'll go with half a pack a day for a while longer; let some more nicotine get out of my system, and then try cutting down some more.

The fun part has been the dreams (nightmares). Dancing cigarettes, Santa smoking, the Marlboro man........basically all your old cigarette ads coming to life and tormenting me. "More doctors smoke Camel cigarettes than any other brand." (I'd love to see the lung cancer statistics on that). "L.S.M.F.T.: Lucky Strike means fine tobacco" (and C.O.P.D.).

I'm not trying to quit because of health reasons. It's a matter of finances. I just can't afford $300 a month for cigarettes. Likewise, I can't afford to pay $50+ for a quit smoking aid. All they do is provide the nicotine that you don't get when you cut down or quit smoking. I don't want to change the source of the nicotine. I want to purge it from my body. It's like eating a marijuana brownie instead of smoking a joint. (Is it? I wouldn't know. I'm guessing. I never had a marijuana brownie; at least I don't think I did. I don't remember........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm).

My brother says that cigarettes are nearly $90 a carton in Massachusetts. He drives 45 minutes to New Hampshire and gets them for about $20 bucks less. Good deal if you buy about 10 cartons at a time. He buys one. Hardly worth the gas. Go figure. Maybe if you cross the state line with more than what is considered "for personal use" they can charge you with trafficking. Smuggling between states? I suppose you could make a good living doing that. I wonder how much cigarettes cost in Georgia.