Day 152 and still going.
Today started off crazy as usual. Getting my 2 daughters up, dressed, fed and so on. Then on my way to work I for some reason found myself on auto-pilot again. Heading right to the convenient store where I used to buy my chew. Not to waste my time, I went into the store, grabbed a mountain dew and went to the counter. Upon setting down my dew, the one clerk points at the rack of death and asks me if I needed any. My first thought was - YOU DICK! But before I could say anything, the other clerk piped in, called him a dick and reminded him that I quit and asked me what day I was on. Old habits are hard to break for everyone I guess. I was used to stopping there on my way to work to buy chew and he was used to being my supplier.
After that, I continued on down the road and stopped at a GNC for vitamins. Now GNC is not a place that I patronize as frequently as the convenient store. Maybe once a month. Maybe. I walk in and must have had the look of "I can't find shit" so the guy working there stops me and tells me to turn around and look on a different shelf. I then asked him how he knew what I was looking for. He didn't look familiar to me, again because I go to that store maybe once a month. He then proceeds to tell me that he remembered me because none of his other customers enter the store with a chew in their mouth. I then told him that it wasn't tobacco, it was Jake's mint. Anyways, we strike up a conversation about quitting because he said he's been "trying" to quit for a few months without any success. Said he's been chewing for 5 years and explained about how it was SOO hard to quit and that he didn't think something like fake would help him. He'd tried Smokey Mountain and said it just didn't compare to his Grizzly.
I proceeded to tell him how I chewed for over 20 years, give or take a day or two, and that in my opinion, fake chew alone wasn't what he needed to quit. I told him I hadn't had tobacco in 152 days. Spouting off that number off the top of my head without any hesitation caught his attention. I followed that up by telling him how and why I knew that number - KTC. I told him that KTC was all about quitting alongside other addicts. It is all about the brotherhood and helping each other stave off the seductive advances of the nic bitch.
I finished checking out and started towards the door. I then turned around and asked the kid if he sold anything in his store, that had absolutely no health benefits whatsoever if consumed. It was meant to be rhetorical and he didn't answer but was certainly thinking. I then asked him that if he sold something, that could never help anyone do anything but possibly cause cancer, would it sell? Again he looked dumbfounded. I told him that product exists. It's called chewing tobacco.
I started towards the door again and told him if he wanted help, all he had to do was ask. And ask he did. He ended up writing down the website address and I told him where to go buy some Jakes.
He seemed eager to quit. I just hope he follows thru and checks out the website. I'm going to give it a couple of days then I'm going back to the store, armed with a can of Jake's Wintergreen. If this kid really wants to quit I will show him the door. I just hope he uses it.
