I must secretly desire yellow teeth

Today marks exactly one half of a year since I smoked my last cigarette. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I quit with the aid of Chantix and now I have no real desire to resume smoking again. Last night confirmed it for me. I met my buddy Mike at a bar last night to play for some cheap T-shirts in a trivia game. (did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair?) As I walked into the bar from the bitter and wicked cold weather the first thing I noticed was the thick cloud of smoke. It was nasty and smelled awful. The air was stale and rank. It wasn't pleasant and what I used to like smelling now repulsed me.

Don't get me wrong and think I'm going to become a anti-2nd hand smoke crusader and call for the ban of all public smoking, because I won't. It goes against my natural inclination of what freedom should be. If a private business wants to allow their patrons to smoke then that's their business. It's our choice as consumers to decide whether to patronize a place that's smoky. Thus the free market dictates to a business what the current morals are by profit incentive instead of making absurd laws that inhibit our rights.

But I digress....

Smoking disgusts me now and that's a good thing in my eyes. My 6 month abstinence calls for a celebration. Hopefully Lynn will think the same thing and reward me later tonight (wink, wink).

Of course, as I gave up one addiction I picked up another. When I smoked I lost my tolerence for caffeine. I could barely drink a 12 oz Diet Coke without having my heart rapidly aflutter. I actively avoided coffee, colas, Barq's root beer, Mountain Dew, Excedrin and binging on 5 pounds or more of chocolate. It's my understanding that nicotine is a stimulant, so I guess the extra jolt of caffeine would be a bit too much for me. (funny how a stimulant "calms you down" when you smoke, it's calming because you're in withdrawl) So when I quit I started drinking coffee to wake me up a bit as I was dragging somewhat from the lack of stimulants I got from smoking.

Yesterday, I decided to go without a cup of coffee.

I got a headache and felt tired. I drank a Diet Pepsi at lunch and felt better, guess I have a new monkey on my back.

Just my luck, coffee, like cigarettes, make your teeth yellow....

Liquor in the front, poker in the rear

Yeah, that saying never gets old, does it?


Some of you may wonder- why poker? Why the obsession over random card combinations?

Well, I do have an addictive personality to say the least- and it's a good thing I never snorted blow or shot up smack, cause I'd probably be dead now. But there's lots of other fun things to obsess over, and lots of other fun card games too. So why poker?

I'll man up and admit that poker on TV created the spark, seeing hole cards really made poker more watchable and understandable. Even someone with a rudimentary knowledge of poker could watch and scream at the TV set- "You idiot, why are you bluffing with 8 high, he's got a full house!!!" And anytime you have the chance to feel superior to someone who knows what they're doing is always a fun time. Even still, that's being a spectator and not a participant.

Eventually I got sucked in when the husband of my wife's co-worker overheard me talking to my buddy while at my kid's birthday party about maybe getting a poker game started up. He had already started a small league of people who played once a month in a hold 'em tourney and invited me to come to the next game. I almost didn't go, as I didn't really know anyone, but the wife twisted my arm and I went. (I wonder if she regrets that action now?) The result? I was knocked out first and lost 50 bucks- but I was hooked.

At first- the fact that random cards can come out and create chaos to someone's strategy is what lured me in, what kept me coming back was the mental challenge of besting someone. Sure poker is luck in the short term but in the long term, poker is skill. I finally found something to satisfy my competitive soul. Having been either hopelessly uncoordinated and/or woefully out of shape most of my life, I found something that allowed me to compete and not look foolish in gym shorts and striped socks. Yeah, I was okay at chess, checkers, and backgammon- but no one wants to get together and play on a regular basis, and if they do, then they were way beyond my skill set. So far, I've won more money than I've lost, so until I become a leaky sieve or a tilting donkey I'll keep playing and obsessing over poker.

I suppose it could have been worse- I could be playing Magic: the Gathering or bridge instead- at least poker is somewhat "cool" right now.