The Honeymoon Phase.

I had lunch with a couple of friends yesterday and one of them asked why I started smoking again after the last time I had quit, and I couldn't remember.  Around 2002 I had quit for around nine or ten months, and then I just started smoking again.  Thinking about it got me to worrying about what will happen when the honeymoon phase of quitting wears off again.  This time though, I think things will be very different.

For one thing, I am close to the only smoker I know these days. I know a few people who will have a cigarette or two socially with drinks (which I know I cannot attempt ever again), but in retrospect, I am normally the one to start the smoking in those circumstances.  Of course, me having been a chain-smoker when I drank, no one else really had a chance to start smoking before me, so I may have just been under the misapprehension that I was the Pied Piper of the social smokers.  The last time I un-quit I was still at law school where there were a bevy of smokers just like me, so walking past them day after day may have just worn me down.  More likely than not though, it was probably just finals that did me in.

The honeymoon phase is in full swing for me.  These last couple of days without cigarettes have been terrific.  Today I took a nap and when I woke up my hands weren't numb (perhaps my circulation is improving).  Bryan and I wandered through the Saturday farmers market today, and I didn't even run off to smoke.  I saw some others who did and felt superior (ha!  honeymoon phase prerogative).  All in all, everything is going swimmingly, and tomorrow I will go swimming with my darling godson and his brother.  I can't remember if the patch is water resistant or not.  

Also, in case anyone was wondering about the crab dinner at the Crow Inn, yesterday's experience was not good.  Three large crab legs that, to me, smelled entirely too fishy to eat, but I did anyhow, and it tasted a little off, but who knows.  Bryan suggested that perhaps my nose is just starting to smell again.  I didn't ask what "market price" was for the legs and was astonished to learn they charge $29.95 for three fishy crab legs and a bag-o-salad.  To be fair, it is pretty hard to get good seafood in a land-locked state.  The proper place to eat seafood is some island in the South Pacific or Caribbean, preferably that you've caught yourself.  I still had fun at the Crow Inn, and next time I'll remember to just get the finger steaks.  (The photo is Fiji lobster, not Crow Inn crab legs.)