Re: VOF Speech dedicated to Dana!

On Mar 16, 11:41 am, Lizzy <dizcov...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 15, 10:01 pm, Jsteam <fftN...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:





Dana, dude, since I know you're probably listening...to Marv's music at least!  Sighted
people have no idea.  I am listening now to my daughter's iTunes; she has a pretty good
collection.  Funny how the next generation moves on from where we used to be cutting
edge.  I wish them well.  And I pray that they don't start smoking, don't you?  It's so
hard, and we went down that path of imagined immortality and by the time we were 35 or
so we realized we need to quit and then we couldn't and the next thing you know it's
45, and we still haven't stopped, ad pathos.

Believe it or not I am busy converting my Lotus .WK? files into Excel, since I still
have a copy of Office 2003 lying around.  I just found out that the Office 2007 version
can't read .wk? files; that means that if you haven't converted all your lotus files to
Excel, thinking that you always read them in with Excel when you need them, you will be
SOL.  That means that one day the next version of Word won't be able to read
Wordperfect files, either.  Ugh.  

As everyone says, what does all this have to do with stop-smoking?  As Marvin reminds
us, Everything.  It feels good to be free.  I can't imagine how screwed up things would
be to still be smoking.  Yeah I walk past people and through their clouds of smoke and
wonder what it would be like to be doing that again.  Most of the time I know that it
would be out of the question.  Sometimes I think it might be nice.  But we all know it
would be dreadful, and at this stage it's not worth the pain to even think about it.

For some reason I could almost feel the cigarettes in my sock today as I was walking up
the stairs.  That of course made me wonder how long I would have to wait until I could
smoke one, which reminded me that I don't do that anymore, which reminded me to tell
you this story in the hopes that I can provide some encouragement and appreciation to
you lovely folks.

Yeah, keeping them in my socks was a hassle, but it was something I'd become accustomed
to, just like having them in your purse or shirt pocket.  *Why* I kept them in my sock
is another matter which caused much angst over the years with loved ones, but that is
another story.  

So after a very long day I am so glad to say that I didn't smoke.  I am even gladder
that I never thought to smoke.  That wasn't how it was at first.  By the same token,
however, I didn't go on AS3 10 times today, either.  That's my loss, but at least I can
jot these thoughts down and pop in for a little visit, hoping to see some old friends
or talk with the new people.  Of course when we smoked we never thought about smoking
either, it's just something we did.  And couldn't live without.

I stopped smoking (again) on 3/16/06; a month later I was in the midst of a horrible
trial in life, which lasted 2 1/2 years.  Yes, this was the worst time to quit, but I
did it.  And couldn't have done without all of you.   A lot of you know who you are, oh
saints.  There were so many people I really connected with those three years ago, and
they really made such a difference in my life.  How I long for those real-life meets,
but I could never get it together to come to one.  

My first experience with AS3 was in July 1995 when I stopped the first time after 15
years of smoking.  AS3 was absolutely invaluable in my journey.  10 months later I was
DX'd with leukemia (CLL), the same year that my mom was DX'd with a serious Asthma
condition caused by her employer's building.  We were at her house and were joking
about how at this stage we should just start smoking again!  She had smoked Lark's when
I was a kid, and I remember stealing them, too.  She quit back around 1975 or so.  
Unknown to her, I indeed resumed smoking in January 1998.  Yuck.

BTW, I have sent her a copy of this article to her; Hi mom, welcome to the digital
community.  Thanks for everything!  You are so right about the need for a support
group.  This is the best one I've ever seen.

So also let me thank those guys from 1995-1998 who saved me the first time; the ones
that I remember off the top of my head which include Graham King (RIP), Bud Ellis
(RIP), Ian, Joyce, and Mike (although I didn't know him back then too much), Michiko,
Pam, Jacque, Barry, and a host of others that I am embarrassed to say lost track of me
since I went the way of others who go dark in here, i.e. back to puffing.  Regrettably,
I started back smoking again in 1998 while in Washington, DC.  Don't know why, I can
barely remember the scene.  That was the year we left Ft. Worth and returned to
Houston, TX, to pursue the Ph.D. in Statistics.  Boy was that a heavy smoking time!  
Steph, I gotta hand it to you, you're doin' it!

For this acknowledgement section, please forgive me if I don't mention you explicitly,
I didn't use the quitlist, and everyone of you played a part in this VOF milestone.  I
thank all the "old" [extant] people in 2006, who were there before I got here like
Robin, AnneDDD, ConcordPhil, Jef, Robb, EP, Les, Echo, Pam, Sparky, Gkeeper, George S.,
Keven, Sally, Matt, Jacks, BB, April, Crystal, ChrisB, Patsy, DavidL, Writer, etc.  
Next I want to thank all the "new" people, like S&S, FIM, Tiho, AZ, Summer, BamBAm,
Wayne (who I think is an "extant" person), Mariroe, Msmomo2u, Cindy, Molly, PKK, HPB,
Susan, and so many others.  And to the "very" new people, if you've read this far
you've seen that this smoking thing can be beaten, you just hvae to do it ODAT, and
"read and post, read and post".

And of course, I salute my dear SFB-2 brethren, which include Barbara-eve done it @
last!!!, Cindy, Ynot (Tony), pc, Stephanie, Sue, Oz, Craig Dunn, Peter Walker, Erik the
Viking (ETV), astrog, Stardust, Jimbob, Wrong Attitude (aka Bill S. or Emerald Saint),
Lane Baldwin, Erin, Tarn, Tania, Kerry S., Squids, Mellow1 (Anita), and, last but
certainly not least, S&S; and also the honorary SFB2'ers, without whom we would be
bereft of the soul that binds us together, Marv, Cat, Lizzy, chefmcc, DutchVanAfoort,
and Kathleen, that voice of the practical and sweet savor of Christ to all of us.

If you don't know what SFB-2 is all about, just do a Google groups search for the
expression:  stop-smoking 200, 300 years "Embrace Silliness"
Should be the first (and only) hit that comes up.

-Jsteam: 3 Yrs 0 Months 0 Days, Tons of Cigarettes not Smoked, Tons of Money saved bu
unaccounted for!

(No Quitmeter, too many computers ago.I actually have a quitmeter going on my office
computer but I won't e there before I post this.)

P.S. Marv, I love the video on your site.  I miss the site, though!
P.P.S. Yes, I used a spell-checker on this!

This is written without spell-checker!

Oh, my!  How did I miss thee, let me count the way's (without lotus or
excell)
I miss the chatroom nights we had
I miss the fun we had there
I miss the party's we had there
I miss dutch "nakid clog dancing" for us there

Well, I could go on and on....

It is so wonderful to see that you have completed 3 years of
smobriety, it is so wonderful that you spend all that time writing a
rather long post and let us into your life for just this moment.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for you are one of many that
has helped me also.

Love Lizzy

Three years, two months, three days, 11 hours, 40 minutes and 10
seconds. 34754 cigarettes not smoked, saving $6,516.48.(some of the
money accounted for) Life saved: 17 weeks, 1 day, 16 hours, 10
minutes.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

js - What a wonderful post. I remember when you first came here and we
went into chat and talked about books and shaky marriages and quitting
the smokes. You have come through w/flying colors. Congratulations,
big guy!
Hugs,
Pam
.

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