usvi-on-line
Smoking STJ
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California Girl
I used to smoke and quit when they went up to 75 cents a pack because that was just too expensive! LOL! However I was a considerate smoker and went to great lengths not to impose my smoke on anyone else, if possible. Now I can't stand being around someone smoking a cigarette, but I don't go over and give them a piece of my mind... if they want to kill themselves, that's their business. I just move upwind. It's so easy for me to just make a small adjustment in my position and it usually doesn't put me out. Everyone is happy and the smoker doesn't even know I was bothered by it. It's so easy if you just take responsibility for yourself and move out of the way of the smoke. Why sit and fume? (no pun intended - ha!) 
As a non-smoker, then a smoker and now a non-smoker again I think I can shed some light on why non-smokers want to lecture smokers (trust me, may not seem to you like what you are doing but it is). I hated cigarette smoke growing up. My grandparents smoked like chimneys and the den always had a fog hanging over it. I used to lecture them, break up their cigarettes, beg, plead etc to try to get them to quit. I'd do the handwave "p u it stinks" thing and they just didn't listen! I'm college educated, consider myself smart enough to know the health hazards related to smoking and yet, one day I picked up the habit, out of stress. I realized once I started just how hard it was to stop. All non-smokers would give inquisitive looks and ask 'why don't you just stop?' And I'd say to them "You know, I never thought of that. Why don't I? No all of us smokers just like to spend on hard-earned cash on something that is choking us and killing us." Sarcasm included. The thing is non-smokers who have never smoked just don't understand how addictive it is. It is more addictive than some illicit drugs. One news show just ran a piece on how they suspect tobacco companies are upping the amount of nicotine and have been for years making it harder for people to quit. I tried to quit several times before with the patch and nasty-tasting gum. You have seen people freezing their a**es off outside to have a smoke, yeah? And further, non-smokers who like to lecture or complain about smoke bothering them do lump all into one category. Look- some people are inconsiderate and smoke and some people are considerate and smoke. Do you think you will change and inconsiderate person's mind by stating your pet peeves to them. It's unlikely, after all, they are inconsiderate.
And I just wanted to add-both my grandmothers died of lung cancer (You think that alone would have stopped me? That is how addictive it is!). One smoked, one did not. There are many sources of health hazards like car fumes (Diesel makes me downright sick to my stomach), pesticides and especially radon when concerning lung cancer. Check it out.
And like California Girl and others have said-you can move too. If someone had really bad B.O. or was annoying me in some other way, I would move or if I was at a restaurant or someplace I could not move easily I might ask them to stop what they were doing.
And I just wanted to add-both my grandmothers died of lung cancer (You think that alone would have stopped me? That is how addictive it is!). One smoked, one did not. There are many sources of health hazards like car fumes (Diesel makes me downright sick to my stomach), pesticides and especially radon when concerning lung cancer. Check it out.
And like California Girl and others have said-you can move too. If someone had really bad B.O. or was annoying me in some other way, I would move or if I was at a restaurant or someplace I could not move easily I might ask them to stop what they were doing.
When will I see St John again?
