[CaroleZ]

Hi!! I'm Carole, I'll be 31 this May, and I've been smoking cigarettes ever since I was about 15. (I was able to successfully hide my cigarette smoking from my mom and my dad, from all of my relatives, from all of my sports coaches, and from almost all of my friends until after I graduated from high school.)

Up until about 6 months ago, I'd been smoking only about 10 cigarettes a day. But during my summer vacation last year, I started smoking Misty Slim Light Menthol 120's, and now I'm smoking about 80 of them every workday and about 100 of them every non-workday. I can afford the little more than $100.00 every week that I currently have to spend for my cigarettes because I've got no other vices, and I've got a great job with a great salary. (I've been a full time teacher for the past 8+ years.)

Every workday, I smoke at least 20 cigarettes before I get to school. Then, about 2 hours later, I smoke at least 10 more cigarettes (during my morning free period). Then, about another 2 hours later, I smoke at least 10 more cigarettes (during my lunch period). Then, about another 2 hours later, I smoke at least 10 more cigarettes (during my afternoon free period). And about another 2 hours later, I smoke at least 10 more cigarettes before I get home from school. Every non-workday, I pretty much continuously smoke cigarettes from the time when I wake up in the morning until the time when I go to bed at night.

After I go to bed every night, I only sleep for about 3 or 4 hours before I automatically wake up, and then I smoke about 10 cigarettes before I go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. (I'm able to function quite well with less than 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night.)

My steady boyfriend, Rob (whom I've been living together for the past 8+ years), and most of my co-workers have never had any complaints at all about my cigarette smoking, even now that I'm smoking so many cigarettes so much of the time.

But both my and my dad are now convinced that I'm hopelessly addicted to nicotine (which I AM) and that I'm smoking myself to an early grave (which I AM NOT), so I've promised them that I'll cut back on (but NOT QUIT) my cigarette smoking IF (and ONLY IF) it ever seriously affects my health. Except for my eyes (I've worn glasses that have extremely strong prescriptions ever since before I was 2) and my teeth (I've worn full upper and full lower dentures for a year now), my health has always been, and continues to be, excellent.

Today, my school district had to use an emergency day because one of its school's furnaces isn't working properly, so I was just surfing the 'net, and I found this forum. Thanks very much for providing all of us smokers with such a great website!!

Take care,
Carole