So I got invited to an Oscar party but I can't go because every single person there smokes and I simply can't be around that. Sigh. This makes me miserable. This is the depressing part of quitting smoking, this whole change in lifestyle issue. Bleh.

I don't even feel like leaving my apartment, to be honest. Who knows what lurks out there? People standing around on street corners or sitting in bars, deeply inhaling and loving their Parliament Lights with such passion you'd think they someone was going down at them at the same time.

Speaking of smoking (oh, was I speaking of smoking?), I freaked my dad out last night during a discussion about pipe smoking. My folks were in town for the weekend, and we all checked out my brother and sister-in-law's adorable new house in Queens yesterday. We had a fine meal, and I frolicked with the animals (one puppy, three kitties) who love me and want to rub themselves all over me when they see me.

After dinner, my dad told this lovely story about how his father took him to purchase his first pipe. My grandfather used to own a furniture store in Chicago, and my dad worked there too. They would drive down every day together, my dad suffering through my grandfather's pipe smoking. So finally, my dad decided to get a pipe.

There was a whole rites of passage story that followed, about going to the pipe store, and going to the back room to see the pipe display. There was a brief educational speech from the pipe salesman. My dad got to pick out a pipe. It was very sweet, especially to hear my dad talk about his own father.

And at the end of it, I said, "That's so funny, because I remember when mom took me to buy my first pack of cigarettes."

There was a brief pause in the room, and then everyone started laughing, except for my dad who turned to my mother and said, "You didn't, did you Joanie?"

"No, I didn't!" she said and glared at me.

My brother said, "Dry as vermouth, Jami."

My sister-in-law kept laughing. I kept a straight face.

Later on my mom made me tell my dad again that she hadn't bought me my first pack of cigarettes. I assured him she didn't.

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