New Hobbies & Old Vices
by Samantha ~ August 3rd, 2010. Filed under: vanity, vision.For my birthday, the Mister bought me an amazing sewing machine, which then took me two months to take out of the box. Finally, this past weekend, I opened it up and figured it out (with the help of Chloe via iChat video and speaker phone). I’ve started on a very industrious first project, which once I’ve figured out exactly what’s going on with it, I’ll share with the lot of you. I’m hoping that by winter, I’m a master seamstress and badass designer. Practice, practice, practice.
Coffee & Cigarettes, you go hand in hand. I’m getting rid of the latter in my ten billionth attempt to quit. Smokes are up to $12 a pack in NYC! $12!
I’ve tried nearly everything to quit smoking in the past – the patch, the gum, cold turkey, weening myself off – and none of it has worked. This time around, we’re taking baby steps.
- Phase One : No more smoking in the house! We’re currently on Day 3 of this, and without even realizing it, are smoking nearly half of what I normally would.
- Phase Two : Clean out the debris. Yesterday, I put away the ashtrays, clean the living hell out of the house, and did my best to deodorize everything. Leaving bowls of distilled white vinegar out overnight helped freshen the air up a lot.
- Phase Three : NJOY! I am currently sitting here waiting for UPS to arrive with the electronic cigarettes I ordered last week. The plan is to substitute regular cigarettes with these, and then work my way down to using no nicotine cartridges. If all goes according to plan, I’ll still be preforming the habitual acts, without any of the addictive elements, so that I can break the physical and mental addictions separately.
- Phase Four : Get the fuck in shape.
Wish me luck, comrades, and if you’ve successfully quit in the past, tell me what’s worked for you!

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August 3rd, 2010 at 12:37 PM
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August 3rd, 2010 at 3:30 PM
Does this mean we’ll be seeing Fractal Couture sold through Haute Macabre? ;)
Sounds like a plan for quitting. Who can afford 12 dollars a pack? Makes me glad I never started! Both my parents smoked for a long time then quit successfully – my mother went cold turkey, while dad used a combination of patches and a drug called Zyban. They both thought the gum was a waste of time.
Good luck, Sam.
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:46 PM
good luck on the quitting
August 4th, 2010 at 10:49 AM
i’d get serious about quitting too at $12 a pack. i wish you good luck. ps i like that vinegar idaa.
August 4th, 2010 at 10:55 AM
I quit smoking (again) about a month ago. I had stopped because they were going for $9-10 a pack. Then I got stressed out and discovered going to the Indian reserve and buying a carton for $20, which, in hindsight, was a bad thing. I found not smoking in the house was a huge help. The first week and a half was sheer torture, but since then it hasn’t been all that bad. I just had to adjust to not lighting up the second I walked outside or got in the car. This is the third time I’ve quit in the last 16-17 years. Good luck!
August 4th, 2010 at 11:19 PM
My boy Tony bought a nicotine vaporizer at http://www.blucig.com. He said cigarettes taste foul after smokin the e-cig. The fragrance of the vapor is actually pleasant and some places will let you smoke indoors. Low costing too, you just gotta maintain the technology
August 5th, 2010 at 2:06 AM
Deciding that I don’t need to quit helped the most. I was doing about 20 a day, and it instantly went down to about 2. Now I have a cigarette just when I really feel like it – about five to ten times a month, sometimes not even that. Doing it gradually helps.
August 5th, 2010 at 11:42 AM
Here’s hoping the e-cigarettes work.
September 10th, 2010 at 5:11 PM
I could not quit until…I stayed away from gambling, woman and drinking!
Once I was able to achieve that, I toughed it out for a week or so. Those three detourents weakened my resolve big time!
But one has to really want to stop smoking to give up such pleasures. Temporarly of course!
July 26th, 2011 at 3:45 PM
Hey, Samantha
best wishes, & best of luck on quitting the smokes….but hey, ya GOTTA have the JAVA!!!!
September 8th, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.
~Mark Twain