Incessant bitching about nothing, really.

I have a not so secret confession to make. I am a smoker and a drinker. I enjoy these vices within controlled means. No matter how many alcoholic jokes I make about myself, I barely drink 3 times a month. I don't even think I smoke a pack a week. And when it comes to drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin; I wouldn't dare touch them. (OK, I have toyed with the thought of trying LSD once, but I probably don't have the balls to do it.)

THE POINT BEHIND THIS POST IS: I have a query to get off my chest here without fear of being made fun of by my peers of the smoking/drinking communities. See, while back I got sick, hence the fact that I wasn't writing all that much (or working for that matter; I was REAL sick). During that time, I wasn't smoking. Had something to do with the fact that I would PUKE when I tried. Anyho, now that I'm 'healthy' I can continue my habit again. Problem is I'm having trouble doing that because of a thing called "wet tip." Wet tip occurs when the saliva in your mouth seeps into the filter of the cigarette.

Let's get this out of the way; I'm not licking the damned thing! I have really bad saliva build up. It had gone away a few months back, but now it's back. It seems not smoking for a while has killed that 'immunity' my body had built up to odd substances that enter my throat. See kids, I had always had this problem when I smoked or drank. The spit in my mouth would flood pretty badly. Therefore, I would have to resort to spitting after every puff or every drink (kinda like Alan Rickman's character in Dogma) I took. I did it in secret for the most part or the people around me didn't take note in the spitting I would do. So this never really became a real problem.

I'm just choosing this rant to bitch about something else I've noticed about the "artistic" community lately. What happened to the sophisticated smokers and drinkers? Using vices to fuel your art? I mean, its like I'm so bad for enjoying a smoke here and there. No body gave a crap more than a decade ago. Now everything is Non-Smoking.

Does anyone remember who the greatest guitarist is? Jimi Hendrix. And how amazing was he? FUCKING AMAZING. Yeah, he died at a young age; but he was so far above any guitarist before and after him. Kurt Cobain lead a generational battle cry. Yeah, the heroin did him in; but... STILL.

OK, my points are becoming a bit mute. The point I'm trying to get across is if Edgar Allen Poe can write stuff that stands the test of time and he was on Absinthe at the time, shouldn't we not take smoking at least a little less seriously? I mean, jeez. Cancer isn't that easy to get, right?

(looks up the percentages)

50% of smokers die from a cigarette related disease. Hmm, I can still play those odds. Of course, we're all gonna die anyways, right?

(The reason why I wrote this was to ask the question "Why is my saliva build up increased with smoking and drinking." If anyone still wants to answer that still can, I just realized half way through writing this that it wasn't as funny a premise as I had hoped it would be. Grr...)