This post was originally published 14 years ago. I read it again this morning and it all still rings true, so I thought I’d re-post with some updates! (Fourteen years ago, I was still using a double-space after every sentence. Fixing that… haha.)
The Blog Changes Lives
One day, a little over 19 years ago, my then strictly-blog-friend Ann/Purling Swine on Long Island wrote me an email that went something like this: I told my friend that I’d quit smoking with her. You wanna quit with us?
I thought for 2.25 seconds and wrote back: YES!
Then I called up my sister and said: I’m going to quit smoking, you wanna?
And she said: YES!
Then I told my family, made an admission and announcement on the blog, and commenced to plan my strategy. Let me tell you, I still remember how thoroughly I thought through all of the different scenarios and triggers and planned and plotted and made decisions about how to deal with each and every one. By the time Quit Day rolled around, I was very well prepared. The triggers that snuck up on me were the ones way further out — like when football season rolled ’round again and the Packers scored their first touchdown of the season and I actually started out of my chair to go out on the back porch for my usual and customary celebratory smoke during the commercial break. Oh, wait, I don’t smoke anymore! Heh. Wow. That was so weird.
Anyway, there was so much blog love and encouragement, it was incredible — and, gulp, that meant there was gonna be no turning back, not with all those eyes on me from near and far! I have fallen down on a few other things over the years, but there’s not much riding on whether I finish a knitting project by a certain date or post a photo-a-day.
One bright star in the galaxy was my then strictly-blog-friend Cara/January One. She and Georgie went shopping and sent me a box full of quit-smoking aids — gum, sunflower seeds, little stir straws, Dum Dums — there was so much that I felt I needed to share and sent a portion of it back east to Ann.
Cara and Ann were then completely oblivious to each other, blog-or-otherwise. I remember talking to Ann about celebrating at some point — maybe at the five-year-mark — by meeting and getting together for a weekend someplace in between Wisconsin and New York… like, maybe Ohio.
Well, as luck would have it, DH (haha, y’all know him better now as RUSTY) and I had an opportunity to visit New York City in June of 2005 — just three short months into the quit — where I was able to meet up and spend some time with not only Ann and Cara, but also with Kathleen/Katyknits, Nancy/Bronx Girl Knits, Cassie/Too Much Wool, and a bunch of other bloggers, many (most/all?) of whom are no longer blogging. It was a memorable and magical trip. I’d only been to NYC once before and the circumstances were so different. Now, of course, I’ve been there… quite a few more times.
I can hardly believe it’s been 19 years. The first days, weeks, months were hell… But since then? I really can’t believe, after having smoked for as long as I did, that I haven’t missed it more, that I don’t have more urges than I do… dare I say it? …that it’s been so easy. I stayed far, far away from anything smoke-related for a very long time — just removed myself from anything, -place, or -one that could lead to temptation. It’s almost like I’m indifferent now. I was in close proximity with someone who was smoking recently and it registered, but I barely had a reaction — it smelled neither good nor bad, didn’t make me want to have one, whatever; I was a little happier when it was finally stubbed out, though. I’ll tell you my story, talk about my experiences, probably tell you more than you want to know, but I won’t lecture or preach; I make my choices in any given situation, other people make their choices.
The Stats
As of this morning (18 Mar 2024), my best estimate of the stats to-date:
- Smoke-free for 6,941 days
- 138,820 cigarettes not smoked
- That’s 6,941 packs not purchased, saving me $41,646.26
- I’m stayin’ alive for 1 year, 3 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 24:18 minutes longer
I’ll admit that the “Lifetime Saved” figure was never all that impressive or encouraging, but it’s adding up, gathering momentum, and is starting to mean something. A YEAR+! Also, the money saved? I doubt that’s reflective of the fact that the price of cigarettes has at least tripled here since I quit, thanks in part to hefty cigarette tax increases in Wisconsin. I think a pack of smokes is near $10 now (I don’t pay close attention), I used a conservative $6/pack in calculating. I can’t imagine how I’d have kept cigarettes in my budget.
Anyway, Yay us! We are AWESOME!! Congratulations girls! And thank you.
A photo from the weekend — had the kiddos overnight on Saturday & this is just as they were heading out on a little hike. Only two children came home with wet shoes/socks/pants. Not bad. Junah made his “camera” with K’nex! Ginny didn’t actually solve any Sudoku puzzles while hiking (or any other time). They all enjoyed some fruit snacks on the trail, though! It was a great weekend.
