Hey ECF, it's been a minute. Just wanted to say that I've recently come back to the fold, decided to run with the pack again. After having SOME luck a couple years ago with ecigs, I've finally got myself set up with enough kit and juice to really make a stab at quitting, if not only changing over, again.
You can look up my old posts if you'd like, I was active here for a brief time, but when I slipped back into smoking analogs I was too embarrassed to post anything about it. And really, I shouldn't have been, it was the product of a culmination of things. First, there was a lot of talk about ecigs getting banned outright, many suppliers were complaining about shipments being seized by customs, etc. etc. etc. The big fear for all vapers, at least then. Second, the hardware was not cheap, at least not for someone like myself with a tight budget (at the time). And third, I have come to realize, even vaping again as I have the past couple weeks, there are chemicals, or something in these damn analogs, that makes me STILL want them after a time. I'm addicted, it would seem, to far more than just nicotine.
Anyhow, I just wanna say I'm so very happy to feel like I'm actually making the transition once again, and that I feel I have a much better understanding on how to use my ecig, from dripping, to maintenance, etc. When I first vaped, it was still sort of unknown territory, but as I've browsed around, seen old friends pick up the habit, watched it sort of grow, I've made it a point to get back on track and off the analogs. It seemed kind of revelatory that as I picked up the vaping habit again, or should I call it 'the alternative', was just about the same time the FDA decided they would NOT ban or try to regulate the ecig as a 'drug delivery device', but instead regulate (ie: tax) them as tobacco products. This, to me, was sweet, sweet synchronicity.
So, yeah. I may be hazy on some of the legal matters, but I am fully behind the movement. In the three months I did vape, I noticed so many changes I was astounded. My sense of smell came back (not really that big of a plus considering I live in a gnarly downtown area), I could taste food in ways I hadn't in ... forever! I would ride my bike and not feel like my legs were gonna just seize. I could breathe, I didn't cough anywhere near as much in the morning. Hell, I felt what we all felt those first couple weeks. But, as I said, things changed. Income problems, supply fears, equipment failure...my vaping days were just done at one point. I had no choice, nicotine had me, hell, STILL has me, and I did what a lot of vapers do in such a situation, I went back to that old, tired stick of dry weed.
I have to say, feels good to be freeing myself from that old thing once again. I can't say I'm 100% off analogs, hell, there is a pack next to me. But that pack has been there two days now, and only 5 cigarettes are missing. Of those, I've smoked maybe two or three drags and tossed them out, both because they taste like absolute ... and because I feel...well, a little guilty smoking them. And as most of you know, and I'm sure many have experienced, it's pretty amazing to go from smoking 1 or more packs a day to ... part of 2 or 3 a day .... I mean, it's so damn liberating you could almost cry.
I hope to get to know some of you better, to talk shop, to fight for our right to vape, and all that. You people are doing yourselves a great service by going digital. It's my supreme hope we can all someday be free from nicotine entirely. Until that glorious day, let us hold our ecigs up high and be proud that we are doing the one thing that might possibly make that day a reality.
Yours truly and sincerely,
Cuando, the self-deprecating nicotine addict.
You can look up my old posts if you'd like, I was active here for a brief time, but when I slipped back into smoking analogs I was too embarrassed to post anything about it. And really, I shouldn't have been, it was the product of a culmination of things. First, there was a lot of talk about ecigs getting banned outright, many suppliers were complaining about shipments being seized by customs, etc. etc. etc. The big fear for all vapers, at least then. Second, the hardware was not cheap, at least not for someone like myself with a tight budget (at the time). And third, I have come to realize, even vaping again as I have the past couple weeks, there are chemicals, or something in these damn analogs, that makes me STILL want them after a time. I'm addicted, it would seem, to far more than just nicotine.
Anyhow, I just wanna say I'm so very happy to feel like I'm actually making the transition once again, and that I feel I have a much better understanding on how to use my ecig, from dripping, to maintenance, etc. When I first vaped, it was still sort of unknown territory, but as I've browsed around, seen old friends pick up the habit, watched it sort of grow, I've made it a point to get back on track and off the analogs. It seemed kind of revelatory that as I picked up the vaping habit again, or should I call it 'the alternative', was just about the same time the FDA decided they would NOT ban or try to regulate the ecig as a 'drug delivery device', but instead regulate (ie: tax) them as tobacco products. This, to me, was sweet, sweet synchronicity.
So, yeah. I may be hazy on some of the legal matters, but I am fully behind the movement. In the three months I did vape, I noticed so many changes I was astounded. My sense of smell came back (not really that big of a plus considering I live in a gnarly downtown area), I could taste food in ways I hadn't in ... forever! I would ride my bike and not feel like my legs were gonna just seize. I could breathe, I didn't cough anywhere near as much in the morning. Hell, I felt what we all felt those first couple weeks. But, as I said, things changed. Income problems, supply fears, equipment failure...my vaping days were just done at one point. I had no choice, nicotine had me, hell, STILL has me, and I did what a lot of vapers do in such a situation, I went back to that old, tired stick of dry weed.
I have to say, feels good to be freeing myself from that old thing once again. I can't say I'm 100% off analogs, hell, there is a pack next to me. But that pack has been there two days now, and only 5 cigarettes are missing. Of those, I've smoked maybe two or three drags and tossed them out, both because they taste like absolute ... and because I feel...well, a little guilty smoking them. And as most of you know, and I'm sure many have experienced, it's pretty amazing to go from smoking 1 or more packs a day to ... part of 2 or 3 a day .... I mean, it's so damn liberating you could almost cry.
I hope to get to know some of you better, to talk shop, to fight for our right to vape, and all that. You people are doing yourselves a great service by going digital. It's my supreme hope we can all someday be free from nicotine entirely. Until that glorious day, let us hold our ecigs up high and be proud that we are doing the one thing that might possibly make that day a reality.
Yours truly and sincerely,
Cuando, the self-deprecating nicotine addict.
