Yesterday was my first day/night out as a vaper. I should start with some background about Nashville and about where I was, specifically. A friend of mine from PA came into town and I encouraged him to stay in the Music Valley Drive area. It's less crazy than downtown, and pretty much everything he would need is in walking distance from the many motels/hotels over there. (Also safer to park his motorcycle.)
As far as smoking laws: TN doesn't really differentiate between bars and restaurants. A bar is merely a restaurant with an extra beer or liquor license. About four years back when a smoking ban was on the table, a compromise was reached - an establishment could allow smoking only if it restricted its patronage to those age 21+. Some places already had age restrictions in place and allowed smoking, others changed to 21+ so they could continue to allow smoking, and still others stayed all-ages and fell under the smoking prohibition. This allowed the establishment owner to choose, essentially, which is how it should be, IMHO, and we ended up with a good balance with something for everyone. The two bars I go to out Music Valley way both allow smoking. So, I knew I would be around smokers while drinking last night.
I never smoked much driving the minivan because it's not as convenient as it was when I had my Neon, so the driving part wasn't any different for me. I got over there around 4 and checked him in, then experienced the joy of vaping in a non-smoking motel room. That was nice. But just having a couple of my favorite bars just across the parking lot was enough for me to start craving analogs. I wasn't even in a bar yet and I was already worried that I would fall off the wagon! So I texted my quit-smoking "sponsor" to whine, put on a fresh batt & cart and hotboxed my way through the craving. It worked.
Since my friend wasn't coming in for a couple of hours, I eventually joined my lover and one of his friends at a nearby restaurant for a little while, came back to let my friend into his room, then went back over to the restaurant give him time to recover from 750 miles on a motorcycle (and wash off the highway). Went back to the room around 8:15, and we headed over to Music City Bar & Grill. As soon as I walked in, I could immediately smell the smoke, but I was okay. We sat at the bar and I pulled out my PV and started puffing. Despite the fact that there was an analog smoker a few seats away and the steel player was chain smoking on stage right behind me, I didn't cave. Go me!
No one really paid any attention except one guy, and I think he was just drunk and kind of hypnotized by the pretty blue light on my PV.
A couple of people glanced over but either knew what it was or didn't care because they seemed indifferent. Win! I successfully drank in a bar without analogs!
Next week I have more friends coming into town. I'm not worried about the bars that allow smoking, all that can happen there is I'll get laughed at, but I've decided to start contacting the non-smoking bars downtown that I know we'll be going to, and my favorite non-smoking bar, Robert's Western World, (which was my second home before they banned smoking there) has told me that my PV and I are very welcome there, and I was also congratulated for trying to quit smoking. If the ECF cards I ordered have arrived by then, I'll have those with me, and I also have a few PV fact sheets I carry with me now. (I'm pretty good at explaining things, but that all falls apart when I'm drinking.)
So, so far so good on both the no-analog and public vaping fronts!
As far as smoking laws: TN doesn't really differentiate between bars and restaurants. A bar is merely a restaurant with an extra beer or liquor license. About four years back when a smoking ban was on the table, a compromise was reached - an establishment could allow smoking only if it restricted its patronage to those age 21+. Some places already had age restrictions in place and allowed smoking, others changed to 21+ so they could continue to allow smoking, and still others stayed all-ages and fell under the smoking prohibition. This allowed the establishment owner to choose, essentially, which is how it should be, IMHO, and we ended up with a good balance with something for everyone. The two bars I go to out Music Valley way both allow smoking. So, I knew I would be around smokers while drinking last night.
I never smoked much driving the minivan because it's not as convenient as it was when I had my Neon, so the driving part wasn't any different for me. I got over there around 4 and checked him in, then experienced the joy of vaping in a non-smoking motel room. That was nice. But just having a couple of my favorite bars just across the parking lot was enough for me to start craving analogs. I wasn't even in a bar yet and I was already worried that I would fall off the wagon! So I texted my quit-smoking "sponsor" to whine, put on a fresh batt & cart and hotboxed my way through the craving. It worked.
Since my friend wasn't coming in for a couple of hours, I eventually joined my lover and one of his friends at a nearby restaurant for a little while, came back to let my friend into his room, then went back over to the restaurant give him time to recover from 750 miles on a motorcycle (and wash off the highway). Went back to the room around 8:15, and we headed over to Music City Bar & Grill. As soon as I walked in, I could immediately smell the smoke, but I was okay. We sat at the bar and I pulled out my PV and started puffing. Despite the fact that there was an analog smoker a few seats away and the steel player was chain smoking on stage right behind me, I didn't cave. Go me!
No one really paid any attention except one guy, and I think he was just drunk and kind of hypnotized by the pretty blue light on my PV.
A couple of people glanced over but either knew what it was or didn't care because they seemed indifferent. Win! I successfully drank in a bar without analogs!Next week I have more friends coming into town. I'm not worried about the bars that allow smoking, all that can happen there is I'll get laughed at, but I've decided to start contacting the non-smoking bars downtown that I know we'll be going to, and my favorite non-smoking bar, Robert's Western World, (which was my second home before they banned smoking there) has told me that my PV and I are very welcome there, and I was also congratulated for trying to quit smoking. If the ECF cards I ordered have arrived by then, I'll have those with me, and I also have a few PV fact sheets I carry with me now. (I'm pretty good at explaining things, but that all falls apart when I'm drinking.
)So, so far so good on both the no-analog and public vaping fronts!
