Yay

I survived day one. I don't know why, but the withdrawal seems lighter than times past. Keeping busy is key and I did just that bouncing from one activity to the next. Walked ten miles yesterday including in the picture above at the nearby national park, saw Wall-E, had Ben and Jerry's, even had a beer on a patio in the village before we came home and made dinner. Then we watched Terminator 3 and the glorious moment of going to bed, smug from success and the escape from suffering that is sleep. Here I am at day two, and days two and three are just as hideous as day one if I recall, so I'll be out the door soon.

Here's something interesting. I'm using the Nicorette inhaler which I purchased last year to have for long train/plane journeys. I've found that it calms down the nicotine attacks and decided to use it for my cessation program. But here's the weird part. They say you are supposed to use 6-12 cartridges per day at the beginning, but I only needed three. Whoopee! Maybe those black market cigarettes have less nicotine than the commercial ones. Not that I would know anything about black market cigarettes. No, of course not.

I want to give a great big huge gigantic (redundant much?) THANK YOU for all the encouragement I've received from all of you, both in the comments and in my inbox. I'm astonished, humbled and deeply grateful for it. You can't imagine how much it helps to read those words. I'm off to tackle day two. Ciao.