Now for a topic that is very close and dear to my heart. Smoking. Yes I know it's bad, yes I know it causes cancer in all different parts of your body, and yes I know it's smelly (seeing as how Lisa reminds me of that before, after, and during the times I smoke). These are not the aspects of smoking that I want to talk about tonight. (Even though drinking liquor is equally bad for you, and can cause much more harm to you and those around you [drinking and driving], and you can get cancer these days from just drinking water or going for a walk.)

Smoking bans make almost no sense. I said almost. I've come to terms with coffee shops banning smoking from their establishments, I even understand and appreciate the rules that highschools have implemented by not smoking on their premises at all, ir not in designated smoking areas. What is by far the most ridiculous thing I've heard has to be banning smoking from bars. Yeah..if the liquor doesn't kill you through your liver or in an alcohol-related car accident, then lung cancer would be my main concern. PUH-LEASE!

I don't think anyone could give me a solid argument as to why smoking should be banned in bars and not liquor. I have friends who don't smoke, actually..out of all the people that I can think of off the top of my head that I know, only 4 excluding me smoke. Out of all the people that I hang out a lot with, only 1 person I know smokes. But, they will all drink copius amounts of liquor, except for one of my friends. Yet, the same people who get drunk every other day are the same people who chastise me for smoking. It's funny though how just because I'm a smoker, people assume that I'm some kind of inconsiderate bitch that has the sign "Yell at me, I'm a smoker" emblazened on my chest. I've had people give me lectures at the bus stop, that not only am I ruining her lungs, but I'm polluting the air as well. I'm polluting the air, as 20 cars drive past us. I didn't realize the fate of the ozone layer lay in whether or not I smoked a ciggarette waiting for my bus. I should have been wearing a cape, and red booties. "Renuka! Protector against the greenhouse affects! Shazam!" A shame, they were at the dry cleaners that afternoon. Darn.

You know what I find offensive? People who judge what my character is like, without even knowing me. They don't know that I always ask whether or not I can have a smoke when I'm with my friends, even when we're walking around downtown or something. The only times I sit in the smoking sections in restaurants are on my birthday, or when someone else decides that we're all sitting in the smoking section. I have no problem whatsoever if someone asks me not to smoke near them even if I'm in a public place. Hell, I try to hide the fact that I'm smoking when I'm around my friends brothers or sisters, or any younger people around me. I don't give kids smokes when they ask me for one. Although, twice I have bought some underage kids cigarettes, because I know what it's like to be 17 or 18 years old and always being carded, I still get carded myself. If I see someone with a baby walking towards me, I've even thrown my smoke away because I didn't want the smoke to get to it.

So I won't be able to smoke in a bar now, but other people can get drunk and drive home. I can just feel the logic oozing out of that one.

I'm feeling a little fuhklempt now. Let me give you a topic.....Barbara Streisand brought down the Iron Curtain with her song Memories. Talk amongst yourselves.

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