Wednesday Factoid: Smoking?

Today's Wednesday Factoid is: Do you smoke? Have you ever?

Never!

I've never smoked anything, not even once. (I mean, unless secondhand smoke from my family and incense smoke counts.)

I mean, I've eaten a candy cigarette. But.

So let's see. I grew up in a smoking home. My parents both smoked for a chunk of my youth, and my dad was one of those people who quit off and on sometimes while my mom was always a smoker. They smoked indoors, since always, and I'm sure I spent my childhood smelling like an ashtray but not really knowing it. I did know, however, that I didn't like smoke at all.

I was especially sensitive to it and had trouble breathing properly if I was in the room with someone who was smoking, and would often cover my face with a sleeve or pull the neck of my shirt up over my mouth so I could breathe better. This seemed to offend my mom, who sometimes took my behavior as commentary on her actions rather than the honest attempt to breathe without coughing and feeling ill that it was. She used to ask me if I wanted to wear a face mask all the time, or tell me I needed to just get used to it. (This happened most frequently in the car if she was smoking right next to me in an enclosed space and I couldn't escape.)

I think, like some smokers, she didn't know for a long time how noticeable it is. I remember some time back she and my sister tried to sell some clothes on eBay and the first sale they made was returned with the buyer citing the reason "you did not disclose that this came from a SMOKING home." (They didn't ask "did it?" Because it was obvious. I think she finally believed that I wasn't exaggerating at that point.)

I've never smoked weed or anything either. I have family and friends who did and do, but I haven't been around it much except maybe for a time when I was in college. My core group of friends for a while almost always had joints at parties. The thing is, I didn't find that anywhere near as disruptive as tobacco smoke. I was asked a few times if I wanted the joint passed to me, but I never accepted and nobody pressured me to do it. I may have just had cool friends, but I think the "peer pressure" rumors about drugs might be exaggerated a little. My friends were just being nice to see if I wanted to be included; they weren't pressuring me to do it, and they didn't (seem to) pass judgment when I said no. Nobody ever called me "lol laaaaaame, loser!" or anything, or acted like I needed to try it. (I cannot say the same about alcohol, but I was not pressured by these people about that either.)

I don't drink either, but I don't have a policy against it or anything. I get drunk really easily because I'm small and inexperienced, and I don't really like the taste much (though I've found some very sweet wine that I do like), and I don't like how I feel when I'm drunk (which I've only been maybe three times), and it's expensive and not good for you and high calorie etc. so . . . like what reason would I have to cultivate that as a habit, ya know?