screw you, walter raleigh

ok, so one thing about living in virginia that really REALLY blows is that you can still smoke in most of the bars and restaurants. you would think that as a former smoker, this would not bother me all that much, but i'm finding that the older i get, the less tolerant i am of the person next to me blowing smoke in my direction. well, i say former smoker, but seriously, it took me all of 2 minutes to quit and i think i really only started it up in the first place as a means to have an excuse to "go out back" for 5 minutes when i was waiting tables. i was never a pack a day kind of smoker, i rarely smoked before noon, and once i started dating my husband, i was pretty much just done with the whole thing (meaning he smokes SO MUCH that i figured one of us had to stop). i'm really looking forward to moving back into dc anyway, but it is just icing on my cake (and since i really only like cake for the icing, i'll just say it's icing on my icing) that dc has a ban on smoking inside, which means i can go out for drinks and not come home smelling like i've been rolling around in an ashtray. what i'm getting at here is that i was out in virginia last night, to a bar that i HATE because it is FULL of people smoking in my face, and despite the fact that i only had three drinks, i woke up with a splitting headache, feeling like i'd smoked an entire pack of cigarettes. i mean...it's 2009. we KNOW that smoking kills you. we KNOW second hand smoke is just as bad. now i'm reading that there is such a thing as THIRD HAND smoke. great, so now it's like the freakin residue from the cigarette you smoked in a room 2 hours ago is infiltrating my otherwise squeaky clean lungs and will slowly kill me. excellent. it seemed to me that just about every single person in that bar last night was smoking. do they not know? did they not get the memo?? perhaps the surgeon general's warning is not clear enough?? in europe, the warning label on the side is simple and to the point: SMOKERS DIE. that's what it says. in bold letters. maybe the letters on american smokes are too small?? i do not get it. i'm not seeing it. i know about addiction and nicotine and blah blah blah, but i guess i was never really addicted so i just don't understand why people are still smoking or why they can't quit. hello, YOU STINK!!! and seriously, i choose not to smoke and i do not see how people who do choose to smoke are allowed to do it right next to me, because THAT IS GROSS. as someone who is married to a full time, professional, record-holding, award-winning smoker, one would think that i would be more slack about this. but i HATE the fact that my husband smokes. I HATE IT. it grosses me out and if he would only wise up and drop that FILTHY habit, he might be surprised at how much more making out would occur. i do not, for one second, give a rat's rear end about a "smoker's rights" to light up wherever they want. you want to kill yourself? fine. DO IT OUTSIDE. i'll be inside with all the other people who want to live.