Monday Morons--People who smoke

I've been in and out of several colleges now since Fall of '83. I went full-time at a junior college in Dallas county from Fall '85 til Spring '87 and was in PTK. The whole transfer to UTA to get an art degree did not work out, and a few years later I was back at the junior college taking a few more courses while I tried to figure out what else I should be doing. And at first I thought that I would try to do all the stuff that I'd done there before, like Monday lunches with the BSU and PTK meetings and maybe I should even join the geology club. This did not work out, but I tried for a few weeks.

So I go to the first PTK meeting of the semester, and except for one other returning student and a couple of faculty sponsors, I don't know anyone. For me, they're all new people, and for the most part they want to do different things. Anyway, the girl in charge that semester isn't someone I know, and she's talking about something they have planned next week, and she wants us all to meet "where the art department sits around and smokes."

One of our faculty sponsors turns green and tries to waive the girl off, but the girl doesn't notice and keeps talking. A couple of the first time people get a bit upset, cause they haven't been at the school for very long and they have no idea "where the art department sits around and smokes," and they don't think that they should be expected to meet someplace like that. Where exactly is this place? Surely it has a real name, or perhaps it is an empty space between certain number classrooms? There are not signs pointing people towards the place "where the art department sits around and smokes."


I'm having a bit of a giggle over the whole thing. The faculty sponsor says something like "some of the people here are art majors, and some of them don't smoke." The girl in charge turns a bit red and starts apologizing.

The main vocal first time guy says he still doesn't know "where the art department sits around and smokes."

"Actually," I say, "it is where the music and drama departments sit around and smoke. Very few of those kids there are art majors." And then I tell the poor guy that the area in question is at the east end of one of the indoor bridges.

I have always thought that it was odd that the music and drama departments sat around smoking cigarettes. Really, I think that it is odd when anyone does that, but I thought that it was particularly odd for them, because they needed more lung power than most of the rest of us. And here they were wasting some of it on smoking.

So twenty years ago, people already thought that smoking was a bad idea, and if someone implied you were a smoker it was taken as an insult. And we had already known for more than ten years that smoking caused cancer and other health problems. So it was strange enough that there were still people smoking back then.

It's just unreal that people are still smoking now. I can kind of get it that some people started smoking before and got addicted and can't seem to stop, but why are there more people who start smoking now?

I live near a city and all the civilized people are trying to ban smoking. You can't smoke in government buildings and such. You don't usually have to ask for the non-smoking section in Arlington restaurants, because except for a very few places that got a waiver after installing an expensive ventilation system, you can't smoke at all in Arlington restaurants. I'm always surprised when I go out of town to middle of nowhere Texas and find a bunch of people who haven't gotten the memo.

Still, I had a few friends who smoked. They can't smoke much when they're around the rest of us, cause we're usually someplace where smoking isn't allowed anyway. Most people I know who did smoke have quit for health reasons, but there were still a few who would have to leave the group for a bit so they could go outside and have a cigarette.

I remember there was this guy at one of the clubs, and usually when a club function ends everyone gets up and hugs everyone else when they leave. So I hug this guy, and he really smells of smoke. And when I get home, I can still smell the smoke. The smell has transferred to my clothes. So the clothes get washed, but unfortunately my teddy bear sweatshirt always smelled like smoke and I had to get rid of it. The smoke smell just really sticks to leather and vinyl and a few other things like that.

Anyway, the guy at the club got busy with some other things in his life, and he pretty much dropped out of the club. I had another friend who smoked when I was in a different club, but that group disbanded. I have only seen him a few times since then. I can't really think of anyone else I hang around who smokes. So except for the out of town trips, the main time that I have to deal with the smoke is when I am walking into hotel lobbies and certain government buildings and other places where people are outside smoking.

So now there is M the vampire guy. And as much fun as it was to meet someone at a Halloween party who obviously finds me attractive, I just want to be friends. He says being friends is okay, but I'm not sure that guys really mean that. Anyway, I saw him again, and I found out that he smokes. It wasn't noticeable at the party, but it was later. Again, we were someplace that didn't allow smoking, but he was helping me carry stuff out to my car, and once we were outside he needed a cigarette. And I've seen people smoke before, and unless they are actually blowing the smoke at me, it usually isn't a big deal.

But about an hour later, I really started to feel sick. And I didn't feel so good the next day either. Maybe the smoke smell was in my hair or something. Maybe it's just that I'm getting old, and cigarette smoke is one of those things that bothers me now more than it used to.

I don't want to insult the guy, but how can he stand that stuff? I may not have to worry about whether or not he just wants to be friends. This may keep us from even being friends.