Wednesday, April 22

Needles And Addiction

So last week I decided to do something that many of you will be proud of; I went to see an acupuncturist. He put 3 needles in my left ear, 3 on my left clavicle, 2 in my right ear and 2 in my right clavicle. Needles have never bothered me so it was no biggie. Why, you ask, would I go see an acupuncturist? To stop smoking.
I have tried everything; patches, gum, the things you suck on, cold-turkey, slowly cutting back etc. The only thing I haven't tried is hypnosis. I suck at this stop smoking thing. The acupuncture was pretty cool. I left the office and felt incredibly calm and stress free. I slept better than I have in years. I was mucus free, woke up feeling alive and being able to breathe. I was coughing a lot but I have heard that this is normal.
Yesterday, I had a pretty shitty day and this was following a pretty crappy Monday. I spent over 2 hours on the phone with some company who processes Dell's online payments. It appears that this company tried to process my $1,500 payment THREE times. Now I'm not one of those people who has and extra $3K+ lying around in my bank account, so I incurred 2 NSF fees. Dell is not responsible, my bank is not responsible but the company who processes Dell's payments is responsible. After arguing with them for 2+ hours over, I was given the proverbial finger and told that I would not be receiving a refund for the NSF charges. I WAS EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED!!!! I GAVE IN!!!! I BOUGHT A PACK OF CIGARETTES!!! I SUCK, SUCK, SUCK!!!!
I also scheduled a follow up appointment with my acupuncturist (at no additional charge EVER) and had another round.
Today I had lunch with Dad who knows about the acupuncture and my slip yesterday. Some of you know my dad. Some of you know how relentless my dad can be; for those of you that don't, imagine a starving dog and a bone. When he wants to talk about something, he is going to talk about it whether you want to or not. After lunch all I was to do was buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke just as an act of defiance. I'm 35 and I want to push my death along just because my dad was disappointed (yet supportive in his own way) because I slipped. What kind of fucked up sense does that make? And how about this - I lasted until after work. I am again in possession of a pack of cigarettes and I cannot bring myself to throw them away.
I need a recovery center.

1 comment:

MSW said...

Oh B, I'm sorry you're having a rough week. Personally I think the truth is we all suck (to use your word), but some of us are lucky enough to have less visible struggles. Or ones that people feel less free to comment on. I love you bunches. Even when you're slippery. But you know you really do need to quit...