Drugs are bad, mgay?

Sometimes, in a moment of frustration, or rather a succession of moments of frustration, I think that smoking a cigarette will be good. Now, remember, I'm a cool guy, so I'm not about to tell you that smoking ain't cool. No, I enjoy a cig or twelve - well, the days of smoking 12 are long gone actually - when I've had a couple of cocktails, other people are lighting up, and the stars align just right. But when I'm sober? I take one drag and my skin turns green, just like it did when I first sampled a fine Camel tobacco product at age 12 in Baja Mexico. Ahhhh....those were sweet times........

I had smuggled 3 cigarettes in a carefully packaged Ziplock baggie down across the border. To shake the trail of desperados and various native Federal agents [read: federales], and the non-stop circumspective parental unit, not to mention the failsafe watchdog grandparents, I took great precaution to hide the smell of said "joy device." Once in Mexico safely, I was still far from safe. Only a novice would succumb to such naivete; I still had to get these little guys from my bag to my lips, apply a flame and inhale to enjoy the goodness. What's a 12 year old boy to do?

Me, my brother, and my best friend took the contraband (some call this "running") down to the beach, headed due north at least 100 yards (because this was soooo far away from the parents), and then hid amongst the gigantic rock reefs that lay barren from the low tide. Here is where we partook. Here is where we were Men. Here is not where our parents told us what to wear; our teachers told us what was good, and maybe what was bad; here is where I smoked a cigarette even though I hated it. But I remember that it was almost dark, it was warm but we had to wear pants and long sleeves, and we huddled in our new Mexican hideout and thoroughly enjoyed our freedom. I remember smoking and laughing about 'who knows what,' and I clearly remember thinking that 'this was so great!!'

Today at work I couldn't remember my password to resubmit my expense report that I submitted - incorrectly - 3 days ago.