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....