Day 6 -- Gold Bond Medicated Powder and the LeMay Auto Museum

[John48]

So I almost skipped thru my Day 5.  Pretty much uneventfully.   I had a few cravings off and on but I did notice my triggers were becoming less.   Some of the more regular ones are starting to fade away.  I do, at times, still just get a longing to smoke.  I try to remember Carr's book and remind myself of those lessons.  It's still not easy all the time but I'm getting there slowly.  Still battling it minute by minute, hour by hour at this point. 

I guess last time I posted was at the tail end of my Day 4 going into Day 5.  Now I'm almost 3 hours into my Day 6.  Yes, I'm up late.  I tried to sleep earlier but I"m stuffy and it's keeping me awake.   Being as I have been kind of sick I tried to sleep in as late as possible today and got a pretty late start.  Other than hitting the dollar store for some tissues and cold med's, I didn't really have anything on my agenda other than putting some Gold Bond Triple Medicated Powder on my face and going to the LeMay Auto Museum here in Tacoma.  

The LeMay Auto Museum is a brand new building and exhibit here in Tacoma and it opened this past summer.  It is one of the world's largest collections of autos and motorcycles so it is right up my alley.  I'm a motorhead.  The building is pretty attractive.  It is glass and aluminum and looks like either an ark or a canoli.  Pretty cool architecturally. 

Being as I don't like to pay for admission when it's not necessary, I waited until it was the 3rd Thursday of the month, between the hours of 5-8 PM to attend.   That's when the usual $14 admissoin is waived and those who are in on this knowledge can save a little bit of money.   Tonight was the free night and I've been planning on this for a few weeks.   I was a little reluctant riding my motorcycle the 3 miles or so down the road since it was cold and the roads were still wet, but I threw caution into the wind and rode anyway.  I get there and realize, dang.  $5.00 for parking?  For my little ol' motorcycle?  So, I went to the little autopay box and realized that I would have no where to put the little printout receipt  that is supposed to go up on the dashboard of your car.  What if I pay the $5.00 and get my little slip only to have it blow off my bike?  What if I put it somewhere secure but the parking attendant (if there was one) doesn't see it?  What if some hooligan grabs it off my bike and uses it for their own car?   I can't allow any of these possible scenarios to occur...

The only solution was to ignore the machine and head inside.  I got there at 5:04 just as the last of the ignorant were swiping their debit cards and paying their $14 admission.   I felt so very special as I bypassed those whom were ignorant of the 3rd Free Thursday 5-8 PM deal, checked my backpack and riding jacket behind the counter, retrieved my trusty ol' camera and headed off inside.  

For a moment I was on the highest of highs being among all these beautiful cars.  I was comfortable now without my heavy jacket and backpack just wandering effortlessly and comfortably from place to place snapping photos and admiring the details of these fine classics.  There is a certain freedom in doing things alone that I just can't explain.  I do almost everything alone it seems and I have come to appreciate its benefits.   I'm also single so I have come to appreciate the benefits of having a wandering eye for the fairer sex, exchanging glances and doing so guilt-free.  Ah, this is the life and life at this moment is good.  Relaxed.  At ease.  Comfortable and confident in my new smoke-free, stinkless self.  That is until I caught a glimse of a Japanese Kabuki girl staring back at me in one of the chromed up side-view mirrors on a '56 Buick.  Oh no!  Damn you Gold Bond Triple Action Relief Powder.   And I thought a couple of the cuties were staring at me maybe because I was somewhat attractive but, alas, it was not to be so!   Instead they must have been looking at me because I'm a weirdo!  Because I have white powder all over my face, I'm wearing rain pants and it's not raining and my boots are ugly.  And I have white powder all over my freakin face!  As I did my best to blend and brush off the white powder I realized at that same moment that in my efforts to get some kind of relief from the redness and soreness around my nose and lips I had forgotten when I left the house to remove this medicated powder from my face.  It was everywhere below my eyes down to my chin.  To make matters worse, I put a layer of Blistex over my Jelly Belly Very Cherry Chapstik and then a layer of generic Neosporin over that in an effort to heal my very chapped lips.   With the contrast or my very red and still somewhat swollen lips and my very white face surrounding these lips I looked like a freak.  How could I forget?!?!  It has to be the fact that I haven't smoked.  That's what I blame everything on these days. Not smoking.  Gaaa... this is embarassing.   Why hadn't the helpful woman at the check in told me I had a strange, very visible white powder all over my face as well as some very red and shiny lips?   Did she not know how to tell me?  Was this one of those instances where you walk around all day with your fly open but no one wants to be the one to tell you?  Why do you spite me LeMay Auto Museum woman?!   Instead she talked me up about some event coming in August while I had the powder face appearing as if someone had punched me straight in my lips causing me to slide face-first thru a Dunkin Donuts shop.   Why oh why!

So I brushed most of it off and blended some more.  I guess other than looking a little pale at this point it  wasn't too bad.  I quickly looked around me to see who was looking and I didn't see anyone staring at me.  Usually under more normal circumstance, I wear a burka under my helmet to stay warm.  But lately since I've had these real weird lips and face issues I was thinking that possibly these issues are being caused by the burka somehow.  So I havent worn one and therefore if I put a bunch of powder on my face then it will stay there until it is wiped off or it rains on my face.  Im not even sure if this powder on my face trick is even working but I feel kind of left out of the "old timey solutions" to everything so I am starting my own.

So, the museum, after the kibuki incident was pretty relaxing and uneventful.  Spent the whole 3 hours there until they asked me a few times to leave.  I got outside and the ground was still wet.  It was not yet raining.  There was some frost building on my seat and my sidebags and this made me nervous.  Made me want to smoke. I worked through it.  Funny thing was, as I'm warming up my bike and wiping this frost away a woman walks up and asks if I smoke.  Obviously she is in need for one.  I paused and actually had to think about it for a half a second.  "No, I'm sorry.  I don't smoke. I quit".  Felt awesome to say that and felt great to not be dominated by the need to smoke.  I could tell she was rushed to warm up her car and get somewhere where she could buy smokes.  I wouldn't know this otherwise but since I was once a smoker, you can call it intuition...   

I haven't been to the gym in a couple of days since I've been sick but I think I'm going today.  Despite going to the gym, I can't wait to eat some sweets.  I'm waiting until Christmas to treat myself to something sweet.  Since all my family is back east and I have a free schedule, my plan is to go see Les Miserables on Christmas day when it opens.   I saw the play on Broadway NYC and I loved it so I look forward to this movie.  Come Christmas, I'm going to eat some junkfood and munch on sweets.  Can't wait.  I may sing along with sweets in my mouth - little chunks of M&M shell mushed into my teeth - as I quietly sing "I Dreamed A Dream" if I feel like it.  Because I'm now a non-smoker and I can do these things.   Just because.