Gotta quit sometime

On a whim, quitting smoking. Whoohoo! (<-that's sarcastic) I can't really say that peer pressure got me into it, but it definitely has to do with me quitting. I've been smoking since I was eighteen-nineteen, and back then you could smoke while walking around the mall. Today it's much more conspicuous. I mean, there's like actual work involved in lighting up. You have to go outside. You carry gum with you cause it's stinky. You never light up until the other guy does because you don't know who you're going to offend. I don't remember it being all that involved when I started.

I started when I used to hang out at the pool halls and at a club in Over the Rhine (Cincinnati). Like I said, I was nineteen. My girlfriend at the time was still in highschool, so she had a bedtime. Me and my friends would go out to the pool hall or down to the club and stay out till two in the morning. It had nothing to do with peer pressure. None of my friends talked me into it. It just seemed like part of the atmosphere. So I started when I was nineteenish, and I'm thirty-one now. So I guess that's my twenties. Whoohoo! (<-that's sarcastic)

It used to be just a couple of smokes a day. Part of the reason I'm quitting now is that it gets to be more than a few over time. Plus some guy I used to hang around asked me once why I smoke. I couldn't think of any reason why, which sort of shows it's pure habitual/chemical.

"Ah, don't worry about it. How old are you?" he asked. "Twenty-three." I said. (I was smoking roll-ups back then. Buglers.)

"Don't worry about it until you're thirty."

For some reason that always stuck. Of course I didn't bother quitting when I was thirty like I was supposed to. Didn't even give it a serious try. Fourteen days 72 hours it stays in your system they say. I could be wrong on that, but what's fourteen days 72 hours?

Screw it. Gotta quit sometime.

I plan on replacing the bad habit with a good habit to help me quit. Anytime I feel like having a smoke, I'm going to do a couple of pushups. So if you see me out on the street, and I just drop to the ground and start doing pushups, I haven't gone insane. I'm feening.