Posted by CP on 6/18/2001, 10:12 am Onto the personal story. I had been teaching a couple of young ladies (27 and 23) for a few months at the 23 year-old's apartment which she shared with her 36 year-old boyfriend. (The 27 year-old also had a boyfriend, who has since turned into a fiance ICYWW.) Anyway, a couple months into our infrequent lessons, the 23 year-old announced that she was pregnant and would be getting married. Now, before, both of these girls had been heavy smokers. The younger one smoked Cartier menthols, an all-white 100, and had amazingly deep inhales followed by a delayed, drifting exhale. Rarely saw her blow a cone. Often her exhales had nostril elements also. So I'm sitting there wondering why there is a snuffed out cigarette in the ashtry pointing in a direction that would indicate the pregnant lady had smoked it before I arrived. After our lesson, the 27 year-old lights up her usual Mild 7 (doesn't even ask the pregnant lady if it's okay!). And then the pregnant lady takes out a cigarette and puts it into a little clear plastic filter thing and lights up and smokes with her usual deep style! The 27 year-old says something about it and the pregnant lady says the doctor said she could smoke a couple more weeks and should try to quit gradually. She didn't smoke a week or two later when we all (including their boyfriends) went out for beer and eats. And she didn't smoke at our lessons any more. But I always will suspect that she smoked in private, perhaps behind even her boyfriend/husband. Because she was/is a very obviously deeply addicted smoker. We've had one lesson since the baby boy was born. She was breastfeeding and didn't smoke at that time, but I still suspect that she picks her moments and lights up. Especially with the Japanese ministry of health saying that 40% of women who smoked before pregnancy continue to do so after, I feel like she is definitely in the 40%. As I've said before, the closer I get to someone, as a friend or lover, the less I want them to smoke. When we started our lessons, we were really just acquaintances (she used to work in a snack I have gone to on occasion.) At the beginning, I liked to see her smoke even though I didn't like the second-hand smoke coming my way from her and the other girl in that small, Japanese apartment living room. Now that we have known each other longer, I would really hope that she could quit smoking for her baby's sake. But like I said, I doubt that she really has and wouldn't be surprised if she resumes her public smoking soon.
Bill may have written it tongue in cheek, but he followed the newspaper clip with a note saying if I thought it wasn't too boring, I could post it here. Well, I know that I am interested in such statistics, and Jason is, and I'll bet many others are also.
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