Milestone

Yesterday was a milestone for me.

You know how they say that every seven years you're a new person? How every cell in your body is regenerated over the course of seven summers? Though the soul remains unchanged and unchangeable, its earthly package, the body, is completely overhauled every 2,555 days.

At least, that's what they say.

Well, you know what?

I had my last cigarette seven years ago yesterday.

Last cigarette ever.

So this body that's sitting in the dining room chair typing this out on the laptop has never known a cigarette. Never tasted tobacco. Never sucked on a coffin nail.

I'd given up pack-a-day smoking in the late 90s just after meeting my wife (not a militant non-smoker, just a firm one). But I couldn't kick the habit when I drank. Unfortunately, I hung with a couple of guys who appreciated an ice cold beer on a hot day. Rather, an ice cold suitcase of beer on a hot day. And we'd all drink and smoke and drink and smoke, no matter what time of year really, while the ladies chatted in the kitchen watching the little ones in diapers.

Then we bought a house and I spent a mad summer of 2004 painting every room in the damn thing. On August 2, 2004, I transformed our living room walls from faded pink to sandstone cove. It was hot, there was no AC, but there was a couple of Spaaten in the fridge. I popped the cap off one and sat down on the deck stairs out in the backyard and smoked the last Marlboro Light I had.

And I haven't had another since.

Why not?

Well, at this point, Little One was just about 8/9s cooked in my wife's belly. I remember thinking about that, sitting there in the dusk with a beer in one hand and the cigarette in the other. Now, the earth didn't shake, nor did my nerves. There were no epiphanies. No voices in my ear, no signs and wonders. Just took a sip and swallowed. Took a drag and exhaled. Watched the fireflies do their three-dimensional lawn dances.

I just realized it was time to give it up.

Like I did about nine hundred times before, but this time, it stuck.

Seven years ago, yesterday.

Yay!