Chrysalis

When I was 50 a good friend of mine was 40. She had 2 little kids, 4 and 6 years old, and we all participated in a neighborhood pumpkin carving contest. One of the neighbors asked my friend, "Are you the mother of these cute kids?" My friend said, "Yes." and they chatted for a few minutes. Then the neighbor turned to me and said, "So you must be the grandmother." :angry: The next day I dyed my hair for the first time. I've been dying it ever since. I don't like looking older than I feel.

heap

Hey, MQ, no fair! If we're going to recruit a bunch of non-smokers to gather for a work detail, I want "dibs" on that. So for all those who want a QT boot camp, come to Atlanta on February 28th and be prepared to work. Atlanta will have better weather than will Maryland and I bet I'm a better cook than MQ is. :)

I'm so sorry for your distress, Doreen. Try not to let your anxiety run away with you-- try to assume that the biopsy will have a happy outcome unless and until you hear otherwise. We will be praying that is the case. (((Doreen!!)))

disintegration

crowds

Whew! I'm so glad that everybody got it worked out! The suspense was killing me! :)

That's great, Jenny! Thank you so much. Actually, I think I look good in that hat; I think I'm going to try to find one. :)

I tried Kindle Unlimited and didn't like it. It seemed to be mostly a venue for authors to self-publish. They had no books by any of my favorite authors. I have nothing against new authors, but I can get plenty of them for free online from my local public library. And despite their promises to the contrary, Kindle Unlimited had almost no audiobooks, which I listen to a lot. So I tried it for a few weeks and canceled. I do have Amazon Prime for the free shipping (which we use a LOT). We use their streaming video service because it comes free with the Prime membership. However, their streaming video service sucks and we try to avoid it (Netflix is much better). So there's my opinion.

That thing that BAT is trying to name. :)

SOS

breeze

Yep! LMAO!! :lol2:

seductress

Thanks, everyone! I found this thread very interesting and educational. The most important thing I learned from this is that feeling connected to the group seems to be very important to the process of quitting smoking. That surprises me because I am usually a "loner"-- I'm not very social, I never join groups, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" is my favorite poem, etc. That's why I was surprised to realize that when I was in danger of relapsing I kept thinking about how others in the group would react. I thought about their disappointment or their approbation. I worried about frightening or discouraging newbies. My usual thinking about others' reactions is, "Who cares what anyone else thinks?" so this experience was new for me. I can see from reading your responses here that most of us considered the reaction of the group when we were contemplating smoking a cigarette. Some of us thought about our QT buddies and decided not to smoke, or we decided to post a regular message rather than an official SOS, or we decided that it was smart to reach out for some extra help and we did post an SOS. But regardless of what we actually did or did not do, most of us did include the QT folks' reactions in our thinking. That tells me that IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO PARTICIPATE ACTIVELY IN THE FORUM. Not just lurk; not just log on once or twice and then go on about your merry way; not even just logon to play some games. Even if you are not a "joiner" you will find it very helpful if you get to know the other people here. Read their posts. Click "Like" frequently to provide positive feedback. Start a thread now and then and respond to others' posts from time to time. You don't have to spend hours here every day, but as you get to know the people here, just knowing them and caring about them and realizing that they do care about you will help you keep your quit. As Batman/Wiley said in another thread today: "Only speaking for myself, but joining this quit smoking site is the one thing that I did that is different from all my other quits. 11months later I'm still quit and will stay quit." Holy Leaping Lizards, Batman, you're absolutely right!!

ACTION is the "top egg"?!! No way, Jose! I think that Bakon put the fix in; that's the only way the vote could have gone that way. I demand a recount!! (PS-- Pssst, Action. Is that good enough? Did you get your money's worth?)

Good for you, E.B.! I love your "can do" attitude! I wish I could think that way. For me, I feel that I gained so much weight after quitting smoking that the weight eliminates all the health benefits of quitting smoking. However, since I have struggled with my weight all my life, I doubt that I can overcome it now. But maybe you're right-- maybe I can try to convince myself that if I can quit smoking I can do anything. I will watch you and see how it goes. Maybe I can follow your lead.

Yeah. Bakon has this loopy tangential way of writing that really drives the crazy point home, doesn't he? :D

How can one "start to quit"? What does that mean?

Sorry, I can't help you, Bakon. As you might expect, I'm a born and bred goody-two-shoes, teacher's pet sort of girl. But good luck trying to energize your fan base! :P

Beth, I'm delighted that your arteries and stents are in good shape. That's excellent news! And it sounds like you are going to take advantage of this pre-surgery delay to relax and rest. That's very smart of you. If you like DVDs, I suggest that you sign up for Netflix and/or Amazon streaming videos. They each have a free 1-month trial period so you can view a lot of movies and TV programs for free during your recovery period. Just something for you to consider.

Love it! Thanks!

Hi, Whack! So good to hear from you. I am delighted that you are still a non-smoker; congratulations for that. I miss your posts-- always intelligent and insightful, sometimes outrageous, but never boring! :D I hope you have a lovely holiday season. Check back in when you can-- I really miss your giant balloon animal photos!

Fifteen days! Two weeks from tomorrow! Quick! Start your diet to get rid of the weight from those Advent chocolates. There isn't much time left, you know. :)

Jess, thank you for posting this update. Last night I thought you were going to be OK, but it's nice to get the official confirmation. By the way, I DO know Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"--I must have been having a senior moment last night. :huh: I'm glad your karaoke went well. Say, could you do us a favor? I just started a new thread called "No! Do NOT post an SOS!" When you get a chance will you add your comments? I'm interested in exploring what makes someone decide to post or not post an SOS. You probably struggled with not posting last night before you finally did post. So what was your train of thought? What gave you the courage to post an SOS last night? Again, congratulations on a great job last night. Now you know that you ARE strong enough to keep your quit even at a holiday party with smokers. Of course, that doesn't mean you would want to do that again any time soon, but you know that is one trigger that you can meet and overcome. Good for you!