Sometime in February 1999 I quit smoking. I wasn’t much of a smoker since The Mister insisted I take care of my business in the hall of our Kew Gardens (Queens) apartment. Smokers had become the pariah of the city. New York had banned smoking in restaurants and bars. There was no smoking in my office where you were given a phone and an ashtray on your first day. So, no, it wasn’t difficult to quit. We planned a getaway in the Poconos to ski, skate and have a wintry good time. We rented a condo with a beautiful view of the mountains. When we got there we joked that there must be a mistake because the place was huge. We settled in and made a romantic dinner. Reveling that there was no TV and that we could read or play Boggle all night! It was unusually warm and we went for a walk. We came home and I opened a bag of David’s sunflower seeds (with salt and shells, thank you). I had bought them because OH MY GOD I’M NOT SMOKING MY THREE CIGARETTES A DAY AND WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY HANDS AND MOUTH? The next morning it was raining. Not the gentle mountain rain that gently nudges the leaves, it was a torrential downpour creating gullies along the mountain where small to medium sized animals perished. There would be no skiing or outdoor activities. Just getting to the car was a feat, but we were determined to stock up on wine. And, yeah No TV! The rain lasted 3 days and squandered any hopes of wintry fun. We went to the movies and went ice skating. We each read all the books we had packed (even the ones we didn’t really like). The salt from the sunflower seeds I ate that week leached at least 2.7 gallons of water from my body. Its no wonder my skin is so dry to this day.
View Separately

Sometime in February 1999 I quit smoking. I wasn’t much of a smoker since The Mister insisted I take care of my business in the hall of our Kew Gardens (Queens) apartment. Smokers had become the pariah of the city. New York had banned smoking in restaurants and bars. There was no smoking in my office where you were given a phone and an ashtray on your first day. So, no, it wasn’t difficult to quit.
We planned a getaway in the Poconos to ski, skate and have a wintry good time. We rented a condo with a beautiful view of the mountains. When we got there we joked that there must be a mistake because the place was huge. We settled in and made a romantic dinner. Reveling that there was no TV and that we could read or play Boggle all night! It was unusually warm and we went for a walk. We came home and I opened a bag of David’s sunflower seeds (with salt and shells, thank you). I had bought them because OH MY GOD I’M NOT SMOKING MY THREE CIGARETTES A DAY AND WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY HANDS AND MOUTH?
The next morning it was raining. Not the gentle mountain rain that gently nudges the leaves, it was a torrential downpour creating gullies along the mountain where small to medium sized animals perished. There would be no skiing or outdoor activities. Just getting to the car was a feat, but we were determined to stock up on wine. And, yeah No TV!
The rain lasted 3 days and squandered any hopes of wintry fun. We went to the movies and went ice skating. We each read all the books we had packed (even the ones we didn’t really like). The salt from the sunflower seeds I ate that week leached at least 2.7 gallons of water from my body. Its no wonder my skin is so dry to this day.

23 Notes/ Hide

  1. raiselm posted this