My Mother Raised A Quitter

Sorry for the delays in posting, things have been nutz at the old Movember HQ. This is a week late but it celebrates 6 Months of being Smoke free. It's a little thing that I had written for www.Movember.com so I will just cut and paste it below.

For the third year in a row I managed to grind through the Manhattan beach 10k once again. I hate running with a passion, but for some reason i always love this race. Mostly because it's a challenge to not run for a full year then try to break your time from the year previous.

Also, nothing makes me feel better than blowing by old people and children. I don't know if you can see it but im just about to smoke that old man on the right...All kidding aside it really is amazing to see the difference in my cardio from last year to this one. I beat my time by a few minutes, but more importantly I finished the race and felt like I could have kept going, barely breathing hard and my heart was at a normal, but elevated rate. In years past I have been gasping for air and feeling like my heart was going to jump out of my chest.

Sometimes you meet people and you just know that you were meant to be friends for ever, and that just happened a few months ago when I met the "soon to be" Mr and Mrs Robert James. They were an amazing NY couple that my good friend Alyssa introduced Andy and I to. We immediately hit it off and they both were stoked to be a part of Movember as well this year in NY.

Robert is an extremely talented designer from NYC who has a beautiful shop on the Lower East Side. Every thing he makes is hand made in his shop with local fabrics. What I love the most is When he has an idea, he walks to the market, buys the fabric, and starts to make it. His clothes are beautiful and not exorbitantly priced, He wants everyone to be albe to wear his clothes and feel handsome. But what really blew my mind is that he created a jacket and named it after Andy and I, It was the most beautiful homage that I have ever been paid. I present to you the Bad Ass B.A.(Bubba.Andy) Jacket! If your ever in NYC you need to pop by the shop, Or at least check out www.byrobertjames.com

I had been a regular smoker for 22 years, at 12 years old I started smoking my mom's cigarettes with the older kids in my neighborhood, giving me instant cred. Smoking was with me when I found a bag of porn magazines with my friends while riding our bikes in Pineland Forrest, it was there to high five me when I lost my virginity, it was there at my first job, graduation, first love and it was there to comfort me when I had my first broken heart. Smoking was the longest relationship I ever had, and even though we had hard times, I had never seriously thought about leaving. I didn't think I could survive the trama of that break up.

Well we broke up in April 2011, and no matter what I will never take her back. When I think about all of my family and friends staring at me in that hospital bed, crying, not knowing whether I was going to make it through the night I vowed that i would never do anything to put them back in that position again. And continuing my relationship with cigarettes would do just that. I still remember all the good times and I still love her, but I have grown, and moved on and realize there is no room in my life for her.

I used to think that if I died... I had led a good life, and could accept that it was my time to go. But now that I have seen death I will do whatever it takes to keep living. It's way better on this side of the pitch. Plus Chicks Dig Scars.











"Scar Tissue is Stronger Than Regular Tissue, Realize the Strength, Move On." - Henry Rollins