Kicking your smoking habit — an economic approach
Three days ago, in a sudden moment of insanity brought on by an unexpected bout of coughing, I took out the three packs of Marlboro Reds (there was a "buy 2, get 1 free" special) out of my drawer — two sealed, one half-full — and spread them on a heavy wood cutting board (Crate & Barrel outlet special, $5). I then pulled a big cleaver ($15, IKEA) off the knife magnet ($5, also IKEA) on my kitchen wall and proceeded to chop, or should I say cleave, the three packets into little pieces. Four minutes later I was smiling and sweating and there was tobacco fluttering all around me.
Israelis hate being suckers. They hate it more than anything. What’s
even worse than getting taken by others is getting taken by what they perceive to be their own
stupidity. I am no exception. I will force myself to have fun at a club I paid a $20 cover to get into. This is why I am not surprised at what happened two days later. I was seriously craving a smoke, and almost bought a pack
when I realized I’d just destroyed about a week’s worth of cigarettes
two days ago. Which meant I had about five days to go in order to
mitigate the damage induced by my attempted quitting. So I didn’t smoke. I haven’t yet. I still have four days to go, at least. I mean, if I start now, I might as well never have tried to quit. It’s just plain dumb. And I don’t mind being an addict, so long as I’m not a sucker of an addict.
Who knows, maybe in four days I’ll buy a pack and chop it to fucking pieces again. It’s way more satisfying than puffing on a stick, I’ll tell you that much.
