smoke break

i grew up in a family of smokers, nana, the aunts and my mother would sit around the kitchen table sipping saucers of coffee and puffing on newports amid their conversation. my father smokes a cigar and a pipe, but occasionally has a socially-pressured cigarette. i have smoked exactly half of one cigarette, and ended the experience with vomit splashing among the clouds of smoke.

i watched a show last night where a transplant surgen needed his pre-teen bundle of joy to remind him that he was smoking on his way to the hospital to replace a lung. someone asked me why i never smoked. i tried to explain the first and last of my tobacco experiences and that i pick my addictions. given my recurrent history of upper respiratory events, i have never really thought i would need to explain not smoking. pictures of tar in lungs and mouth cancer during health class honestly were enough for me to be convinced of the choice.

i have close friends who smoke, and i am not saying that smoke has never touched my lungs, but i honestly do not understand the habit. i was told i was judgmental two years ago. wow, it has almost been two years. this was following the construction of a rule that smoking needed to be outside and had to be followed by a toothbrush. i was trying to move to compromise, but when i think about it i see how this could be taken.

i am sitting in a cafe, tucked two tables from the door so i have the aircon and the breeze coming in from outside. i have fans over head, and music beating from the elevated speakers. its a nice way to spend an afternoon. other than the clouds of smoke billowing from the smoke stacks of the chinese guys sitting on either side of me. thankfully, the table of 4 who where "happily" exchanging christmas gifts is gone. you would think someone focused on health and fashion would know better than to puff though the day,

the bored business men types are actually worse, they tend to chain smoke while they are loudly discussing their business deals, and attempting to give advice so the other patrons know they are in the game. the clouds of smoke sometimes appear to be smoke signals to communicate with those too far away to be forced to overhear the conversation.

the US began the elimination of second hand smoking 20 years ago. this movement started in the liberal west, came to the east and then squeezed the rest of the country with enlightened rationalism. this same movement then conquered most of europe; and recently over took the institutional resistance in cloudy belgium.

as i write this, an new chinese guy at the table left of me just finished his healthy green apple juice, went to get a GQ from rack so he can read about fashion and culture, and broke out a smoke to hold with relaxed abandon. i hopefully look to the right and see a box of dunhill waiting for the iced coffee to be drained before the nicotine is taken.

my open air cafe simply does not have enough open air. my inhaler is at home in my messenger bag and i can feel my lungs closing. the gentle cough that is used in the US to ask someone to blow their smoke into their loved ones faces, rather than the strangers at the next table, does not seem to translate to asia. i guess its time to pack up and go before the gentle cough of message becomes one of inflamed irritation.

i need to make a move; to escape my second-hand smoking.