Living without the ball n' chain

[hwc]

To all of you smokers, I want you to stop and imagine the horror of what I endured over the last day. It took me 22 hours door to door to fly from South Carolina to New Hampshire. Our President brought air traffic to a standstill by flyng to Egypt from Dulles airport in Washington a few hours before my flight arrived. All operations into and out of the airport were suspended without advance notice, for hours. As a result every flight into and out of Dulles missed its connections. I talked to one woman who flew in from Europe, boarded her fligtht out of Dulles, sat on the runway for 5 hours, and taxied back to the same gate before being stranded for the night. Imagine doing that as a nicotine addict. Imagine the "stress" of being a smoker in that airplane for five hours. It's like a horror movie.

United Airlines lied to us all night. Our flight was supposed to leave on time at 10 pm and then five minutes later it was delayed to 11 pm and then delayed to 12 pm and then back to the orginal scheduled departure. We boarded at 12:30 am. At 12:45 am, they told us to get off the plane because the pilot had exceeed his allotted hours the day. They had us walk half a mile to a counter to get re-booked on a flight in the morning. They lied and said it was the weather. No meal vouchers. No free hotel. By then, it's 1:30 in the morning and not even worth trying to take a shuttle to a hotel only to turn right around and come back. So I slept in the airport.

Imagine sleeping in a non-smoking airport as nicotine addict. You'd be climbing the walls. 22 hours without at opportunity to smoke. Trust me, I was plenty pissed off at the situation, but I just kept chuckling to myself about how great it was to be free of any desire to smoke and to not have to drag that ball n' chain around, too

So, the next time you think that BS about how you "enjoy" smoking, think for a minute how much you would enjoy 22 hours of forced deprivation. Do you want to live like that? Or would you rather open the lock, step out of the shackles, and live your life free of that ball n' chain?

[jennifer26]

Thank you for that reminder!!!!! (Flying to Obamaland in a few weeks.)

[gianna]

Thanks to our "lovely president"!!! I can't say I am shocked!! I am happy for your insight and will to be a nonsmoker, this was a pretty bad circumstance, to overcome this without a smoke you are definitely "out of the woods"!!!

[hwc]

That's the great thing about becoming an ex. All those old aggravations of being a nicotine drug addict are history. It's a full time job being a smoker.

[Sandra3]

LOL, this reminds me of the lovely time I spent in Atlanta airport when I was a smoker! Had to go two terminals over to find the smoke lounge and it smelled horrible!!! At 2am I was the only one in there and it was sooooo gross. I smoked as fast as I could without passing out and then headed back two terminals over to my family. Did that like 8 times while stranded there and when I got home, I threw my leather coat in a trash bag with a box of baking soda and sealed it. It was the worst smell ever. It still took me several years to quit after that,

[jennifer53]

Lol boy can I relate to this post! I am a seasoned traveler and have been in that situation MANY times!!! I'm so glad on my next 9 hour flight to Germany to see my family I will be able to relax and actually enjoy traveling instead of craving a smoke. Thinking about situations like that make me excited to become a non-smoker!

[John-C.]

Nice point here, hwc. It does make a big difference in those situations, and in many others. I think to myself nowadays, "How great it is to be an ex-smoker", almost as many times as I used to think to myself, "I really need to quit!" What a difference.

[cindywilson]

LOL, I was in a similiar situation during Christmas where the last leg of our flight was totally cancelled and we all got to ride in a little mini-van to another airport 4 hours away without traffic, by the time we got to where I could smoke again, I was very unpleasant, now it is not a problem and I find I'm a more cheerful person when these problems arise, because my addiction is not bugging me:)

[hwc]

Tony:

Yeah, that's one of the great ironies of nicotine addiction. Smokers are deathly afraid of the cravings if they quit, but those of us who have quit don't have to deal with cravings any more. It's the smokers who live their lives from one crave to the next -- sometime small craves every half hour, sometimes massive craves (like being stuck in an airport).

[jennifer26]

*reminds self to pack spearmint gum and Sudoku book in carry-on bag*

[the_carpenter]

Great Post i really dont think about smoking but reading this made me think how much my life has changed
a year or so ago the ex wife and i went on a weekend get away
three hotels before we found one with a smoking floor
do not eat in smoking section anymore
have a lot more time not standing around smoking

[hwc]

At about 7:00 am in the airport, after a breakfast of Starbucks coffee and a muffin, I took off for the new gate in a different concourse. As I was dragging my luggage (and my tired ass) down the concourse, I passed one of those smoking lounges. People were in there puffing away like addicts in an opium den.

Rats in a Cage

I thought about how crappy I would have felt if I had spent all night running down to that glass room to suck down nicotine. Argghhhh.

We took the bus to the next concourse and I overheard some poor addict ask if there was smoking lounge in the new concourse. "Nope", his buddy said and the addict got this sad tone of voice and said, "Oh well, I guess I'll live. It's just an an hour till the flight." He had no idea how truly pathetic he sounded, not really sure at all that he could go an hour without a cigarette. Sad.

I was like that for 38 years. You can't see how pathetic it really is until you've walked away from it and realized how wonderful it is to not have to drag that damned ball 'n chain around.