Hi everyone. Happy Sunday evening to you all - well, those of you on the US east coast...happy Sunday to most of the rest of you. After a couple of rougher than usual days, I have managed to protect my quit, and am proud to say I made it to day 18 today. I have focus issues...like one of the other gals said (I'm so bad on names - sorry, hell memory in general. I wonder if 40+ years of daily nicotine has had anything to do with that? lol), it's hard functioning in the beginning because we are so distracted by the change of our habits. I'm still struggling with that, but with the help of all of you I manage to stay smoke free. I just wanted to share that with you all. There's two other things I'd like to mention. This is funny.....and was the sole cause of my spirits being a bit higher today. I don't have to work till noon on Sundays, so, because I was up late, mostly on here, I slept in. I tossed and turned most of the morning being lazy listening to the birds and not wanting to get up. Finally I dozed off and got a good hour. When I woke up I felt pretty good, looked at the clock: 11:22, ok good, enough time, so I got up. I put my robe on and went downstairs to get my coffee, looked at the clock, and it was only 10:22. My clock upstairs is a piece of crap and sometimes jumps ahead an hour if I hit the snooze wrong. Musta done it yesterday and didn't notice. So anyway, I figured, ok cool, I'll shower and straighten up a bit. I load the dishwasher and pull the trash out of the closet to take outside. There was a plastic grocery bag I put in the fridge last nite with some chicken bones in cuz I didn't want them to stink up the trash closet. I grabbed the bag out of the fridge and thought "okay, I'll dump the bathroom trashcan in this one and empty the ashtrays......................ah.........I froze and burst out laughing!!! How crazy is that after 18 days!!!!!! That used to be my routine. I'd empty all the ashtrays into a grocery plastic bad first thing in the morning when I knew there were no hot ones, then load them in the dishwasher if it was time for them to be run. The other day I got back in the car from coming out of the bank and reached for the pack of cigarettes that wasn't there on the passenger seat. Lol such craziness makes me stop and laugh. And I KNOW I'm not the only one that does this. On a more serious note.....and this is especially important to the newbies that wane here and there like I do. Check out Spunkie's video of Barb Tarbox please. Watch the 15 minute version....believe me, it will feel like 5 minutes. I watched it about an hour ago and cried for 10 minutes after. I bookmarked the link and whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I will sit and watch it again, and again, and again if I have to. It really impacted me. A very powerful sad story. Have a great nite...thanks to all for being here, and congrats to so many of you on so many big milestones and anniversaries today. BREATH FREE N.O.P.E
