NO SMOKING!!!

I had to go down to the outside smoking area at our school today. I needed to speak to a student between classes and this was the only way to catch him. He was on a smoke break since his next class is an Asian Foods lab that lasts for five hours. Since this is a college and students are adults, they are free to smoke if they choose... in the outdoor area... and of course this also includes faculty and staff. Ours is also an art school with a culinary program, so I would guess a lot of our "suffering and starving artists" suck down a crapload of nicotine.

Now this outdoor smoking area used to be completely open, but there was a hoity toity boutique hotel built right next to us, and we being good neighbors, put up ground to ceiling hurricane fencing with vinyl barriers that cover about 8-9 feet of the fencing. So...there isn't much of a breeze that can thin out the smoke that billows out from the cigarettes in that area. I don't spend a great deal of time down there...That was the first time I've been down there since they put up the fencing. I think it will be the last.

I only needed to talk to Zach for about two minutes. By the time I was done talking to him my head was spinning and I felt like I wanted to throw up. I really didn't think it would affect me quite that way, but it certainly did. It's been an hour since I've been down there and I still have the remains of a headache. I just sniffed my shirt, and it still smells like cigarettes. Okay...I probably am overreacting. I'm such a girly man...

Now...I don't want to be preachy, because preachy people want to make me puke too. But, I don't want to be around that or have my kids be exposed to cigarettes. Here's the weird part. I used to smoke cigarettes...and I still very occasionally enjoy a nice cigar if I am sitting on my deck late at night after the kids go to bed (I hope that doesn't make me too much of a dopey hypocrite).

I started thinking about this a few weeks ago when we went to our homeowners association's pool. There were a lot of twentysomething folks drinking beer and smoking in the pool area. Both alcohol and tobacco are prohibited there, but it seems like the rule is pretty much ignored. We didn't stay too long that particular afternoon. Goobs smelled the smoke from the cigarettes and and said, "Daddy, what's that smell?" I didn't tell him about the cigarettes, but I said..."Yeah, it's a bad smell isn't it?" He agree with me. I didn't want to get into the discussion about cigarettes right then and there, so I kept it at that.

What kills me is this...it didn't used to bother me that much at all-probably because I still was sneaking smokes every so often. I lived in Seoul for seven years...that's probably most smoke friendly place I've every been to. Every place that I went had someone smoking...except of course church...and fast food restaurants. But...everywhere else...someone was in the process of lighting up, in the middle of one, or putting a smoke out. If you were a guy, you had the obligatory breast pocket that jutted out in a rectangular fashion in the shape of a pack. If you were female, you hung out at a cafe because you couln't smoke outside...but you still smoked. I was there...I was in the middle of the cloud, but I didn't get headaches and feel like I wanted to puke. What's the difference now??? All I know now is I can't hang in a smokey environment like that for even two minutes.

I do know this...If I catch my kids smoking...I WILL BUST THEIR BUTTS...I will SAMOK THEIR WORLDS. They can take that to the bank.