They Say It's Never To Late...

I'm done...

I'm hoping that today is the first day of the rest of my life.

I'm headed off to the doctor this morning. I'm going to get a prescription for Chantix. I've smoked long enough.

I wake up coughing, and I hate it. I can get winded pretty easily, and I hate it. I can run fast, for a short distance, and then I feel like I'm gonna' die. I've been a smoker for almost 35 years, and I decided that I don't want to be a 50 year old smoker.

My birthday's in July.

I remember when I started. I was 15. Back in the 70's, it still wasn't the horrible thing that it is today. Smoking, in certain circles and in certain situations, was okay. That's not the case today. But, back then, a girl I liked smoked Salem Light 100's. So, naturally, that's where I started. The long and short of it is that I didn't get the girl, but I did get a lifetime habit that's affected my health and my wallet. Every year, about $2,400.00, quite literally, goes up in smoke.

I travel a lot and, I can tell you, travelling is a bitch for a smoker. Very few airports have smoking lounges these days. When I plan my travel, airports in Denver, Washington DC, Salt Lake City, and a spare few others pop up on my itinerary. If I have a layover, I don't want to have to go out through security, have a smoke (or more, depending on the length of the layover), and then go back through security to board my flight.

Oh, and non-stop cross-country flights? Those have become the absolute bane of my existence. I can do them, and I have, but I was never happy about it. I was far more likely to opt for a flight that stopped in Denver (which has two lovely gate-side smoking lounges) than I was to book a non-stop flight to Toronto or New York.

Chantix has worked for everyone I've spoken to who's been on it, and that includes many who were heavier smokers than me. I gotta' think I have a very real chance with this.

It's a weird feeling, knowing that there's a better than average chance I won't smoke anymore. It's just something I've always done. In some ways, it's like pulling over to the side of the road, telling a dear friend to get out of the car, and then driving away.

I hope I can do just that, and not feel the need to look in the rear view mirror...