Day 7 - Drunk

So on day seven I decided to really put myself to the test by facing one of my biggest smoking triggers: alcohol. I got off work early, rented 3 movies, bought a bottle of bourbon and went to town. Now if I'd really and truly wanted to test myself I should've bought a pack of cigarettes with the bottle but, while I appreciate a challenge, I am no masochist.

The afternoon started off fine but after about 3 drinks in I began to struggle. I started bargaining with myself.

“You know, one cigarette won't hurt. You've gone nearly a whole week. Only one cigarette in a week is quite an accomplishment.”

“You're alone. No one will even know.”

“Just smoke half of one. You can still say that you haven't had a cigarette.”



Once the drunk completely washed over me I started hoping that a smoker friend would pop by and began contemplating the quickest way to get a pack of smokes. There were 3 places within easy walking/stumbling distance.

I compensated by stuffing two 16 mg snus in my mouth simultaneously. After about 15 minutes with a snus, I'd toss it and grab a fresh one and, well, I probably consumed twice as much nicotine as booze, but by the third movie it became less and less difficult. I think I finally trained my alcohol addled brain that my nicotine comes from snus, not cigarettes. I also stopped drinking by 9 and went to bed before 10 o'clock. That probably helped.

I think the struggle would've been intensified if I'd been at a party or had a drinking buddy. In my mind conversation, booze, and smoking go together better than tequila and shot glasses. Hell, conversation alone could do me in. I've always dragged non-smoking friends outside for hours so I could chain smoke while we expounded upon our various bullshit philosophies about life, sometimes smoking an entire pack within one long conversation.

So far during this experiment I have been pretty removed from social situations, but I have plans tonight to go listen to some jazz with a friend. I'm not too worried. I'll throw up a post to let you know how it goes.