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Has it really been a year already? It barely seems like a week. Way to go Johnny, welcome to the club.

rAmen

I think you guys are missing the point.

Last year I was out for a bike ride in the winter rain, which is more fun than it sounds, when I rode past the hospital, and noticed a person slumped over in a scooter, not moving. I rolled up thinking maybe she was dead, or at least unconscious, and asked if she was ok. She was awake, but so weak that she couldn't really lift her head off her chest, much less do what she really wanted to do, which was light her cigarette. So I fished her lighter out of her pocket and lit the damp cigarette that she had dangling from her lips. I can't really describe how I felt as I pedalled away.

Saw this sign yesterday, thought it was pretty funny for an official municipal pronouncement.

It took me a lot longer to get to where you are now, but no matter how long it takes, it's great when you realize you're forgetting to remember.

Another April quitter checking in - hello to you both!

Yep, threes blow thrice. You're doing great though, so great in fact that it makes it hard to offer advice. Rude. On an unrelated note, how did "funk" ever get to be such a glum word, when it's such great music? Keep going, porncakes.

Hey, if we all teamed up as a comic tv cop trio we could be "bakon maple pancakes". My punchline would always be about how we were in a sticky situation. But that's IF I were secretly in teh Canadian FBI. Which I'm totally not. now I'm hungry

No.

Where in the world are you? The west coast of Canada. When and how did you quit? April 15 2012. Switched to snus for three weeks, but I didn't taper off or anything so I consider it cold turkey. Did smoking affect your health that you know of? My mental health for sure. I also think I gave myself a small hernia from coughing. I hope that's it. Has quitting significantly improved things? My mental health for sure. My stamina went through the roof, my nose works better, I don't see stars from standing up anymore, my sleep is sublime, my heart doesn't skip beats... What is the last music album you bought? I raided a thrift store about 6 months ago and bought actual record albums, the one on the top of the pile is the Doobie Brothers "Minute by Minute", so I'll say that one was last. Are you a parent? Not that I know of. <_< Tell me an interesting fact about you... I once jumped off a cliff just because all my friends did. Also it was the only way off the mountain. What is your current (or your last) job? Almost all my jobs have been government related, one way or another.

Congratulations on the Big 1! I bet people feel like poop when they climb Everest too, but it still rocks.

I don't know much about SEO, but this is a good point. Here are some additional ideas running around my head: Cannibalism: several quit boards are almost completely dead, for various reasons, and yet they attract new quitters by chance - I quit on one such board myself, though it no longer exists. I've even seen other members warn newbies away due to low participation, recognizing they'd be better off elsewhere. Maybe we could approach those boards, or at least post to them with their permission, to let them know we're here. Advertising: if someone put together a simple graphic with our address (maybe as a QR code) folks could print them off and maybe stick a few up outside local smoke shops, or wherever. Youtube: how many more people know about Joel since he started putting up short and sweet topical videos? Syndication: sites like BuzzFeed, Reddit etc are happy to host free content. If we wrote up some of our wisdom into snappy submissions, they might get a wider audience. K, that's it for now.

Wow! I'm nearly the same, and I've actually been meaning to write about it. The difference (if it really is) for me is that I have this strange sense of what I'll call "dream continuity" which happens in several different types of my recurring dreams, where when I have the dream I remember the past as though it were real and unbroken, the same way that when you wake up in the morning you pick up your reality from where you left off last night. In the smoking types, I dream that I'm smoking and am shocked, and then I remember that I've ALWAYS been having the occasional cigarette ever since I "quit", and without becoming hooked again. Then I get confused, because I remember that I don't believe that's possible and that I know I'm an addict. When I wake up, it takes me a second to remember that no, I actually haven't been "social" smoking. My theory is that these dreams happen because I only quit once, and so I've never experienced what it's like to relapse (knock wood!). And even though my rational mind knows I'm an addict, my subconscious just can't quite believe it. Then again, I smoked in my dreams before I ever did in real life too, so maybe I'm just weird.

There's "truth", and then there's TRUTH. I think this is going on my fridge.

P&P, you're a treat to watch - congratulations on hitting two weeks! Of course there may be some trying times ahead yet, so keep your guard up always, but in the meantime you deserve a treat. I hope other lurkers are following your progress so they can see how it's done.

Man you're bad at typing! Just call me already, no need to advertise.

I agree with several above, keeping a lockbox of "emergency tobacco" is a disaster waiting to happen - there is no emergency that smoking will make better, and if you believe otherwise you're romancing the addiction. But then again I'm a hypocrite, and I still have my "last cigarette" that I never smoked, buried somewhere in a back closet. In fact, I also have my old pipe collection, though without any tobacco. I think the difference is that I was never tempted by those things. I actually live around the corner from a 24 hour store and could get smokes anytime, so there's no avoiding it. I kept those things as trophies of my conquest. But if there's any part of you that wants to get in that box, you need to throw that box out. Oh, and drinking without smoking ABSOLUTELY gets easier, and it's been a very long time since I've felt that association (and I drink frequently). But maybe it's better to stay in with the hubs and have a wine & movie night or two, and get that trigger dulled before heading out on the town where you're surrounded by temptation.

Just look at you - when you joined the board everyone mistook you for spam, and now you've become some sort of hybrid porcine food product. How things have changed. Oh, and you made it through "hell week", and every soul here knows what that means. Congratulations pigblanket, you really hit the ground running.

:)

So I got it wrong but did it right? Move over, Schroedinger!

So, this guy I know posted two "stupid things" threads one right under the other, and I don't even know what to blame! Could be the puppy, the ADD, the drinking water... I'm even considering cross-posting - it's a real conundrum!!

Great job Nancy! Two things I notice - those chairs in the first pic are the most ubiquitous furniture in the world, how did that happen? Seriously, they're everywhere, including my place. Second, what happened to whatever was behind the old white door?

I'm not sure what makes one a veteran - I've been quit about three and a half years, and Nancy's at about two years and some months, if you look under our avatars it should list our quit dates (or at least it does in my viewer). I remember being where you are now, and that would have seemed like a long time to me. Like you, I also did not intend to quit, it kind of snuck up on me - I've read somewhere that those quits actually have better odds of sticking, but who knows, I only ever quit that one time. Hey, it worked for me, I bet it will work for you, I have a good feeling about you (knock wood no jinxies!). I think there's something to your perception - smoking makes you stop doing what you're doing, and maybe look around a bit, and we live in a world where this quality is sadly uncommon. But so does meditation, or mindfulness, or sweet smelly roses, and they don't slowly kill you in the bargain, so it's nothing special.