I'm not smoking cigarettes...

... this year.

In the tradition of recycling New-year's resolutions (in 2007 and 2008, I resolved to brush my teeth three times a day), I've decided that the cigarette I smoked the morning of January 1st is my last for the year. Since I wasn't smoking that much to begin with, this is more like an extended Lent, as I'm giving up a pleasure and less an addiction.

Turkey is the reason I smoke at all, and a testament both to the power of peer pressure and nostalgia. The conniving, insidious Turk, is always ready to offer their cigarettes to others: leaving them on tabletops to be plucked at will, offering them with glasses of tea, and insisting that the always-within-reach pack be shared. Also, and I know non-smokers won't understand this, a cigarette ties together the experience of a full Turkish meal quite nicely.

Three years ago, my friends Gregg, Mahir, and I, took a trip to the south-east of Turkey, hitchhiking our way around. You meet a lot of people that way, and Turks are probably friendlier than most Americans are either used to or able to fully appreciate. This "Turkish hospitality" often involves offering whatever is available to be offered: tea, food, wall decorations (true story), or smokes. After a week on the road, I had mostly filled an empty pack, graciously taking the gifted cigarettes and storing them away. After that week, I just started trying to smoke them, and thus, another bad habit was born!

I've never been more than a pack a month smoker, and often much less, but the considerable body of evidence showing how bad smoking is for me, and the mysterious cold I've had of late, have led me to abandon the practice... for now.

I haven't been put to task yet, but temptation will surely be a problem the next time I sit down for mezze and fish, reach for my rakı, and watch all my friends light up.

To be honest, just thinking about the experience makes me a little sad that I've taken the vow.

Maybe I'll just try to keep the number of cigarettes I smoke this year under twenty or so...