Happy New Year!

In what's probably the biggest miracle of this holiday season, I partied with my sister on New Years Eve...and actually had a good time. Got up to puke at 7 am, but still had a good time. LOL Usually when you put me and Wanda in the same room for too long, things get tense rather quickly, but last night was fine. We even sang backup on a couple songs together. All I'm gonna say where my sister is concerned is that I'll wait and see.So out of a group of about 25 people, it looked like there were only about 6 of us that don't smoke. Basically, there was a cigarette burning in an ashtray somewhere every minute of the night. It was pretty gross. I had to go for fresh air breaks a couple times. I knew what I was getting myself into, though....Mark smokes, both the guys in his band smoke, and most of the people they know smoke as well. There were about 20 musicians in attendance....only 3 don't smoke. The cloud was pretty thick in that warehouse...and to think that I once would've added to the problem. I've been to many of Wanda and Mark's jam sessions, and it was nothing for me to puff my way through an entire pack of smokes and guzzle a 12 pack of beer. Even though I didn't smoke a single cigarette, I woke up this morning with an elephant on my chest. It felt like I smoked a pack and then some! I spent the morning clearing my throat repeatedly. It was not fun. Even worse, when I went to the bedroom to get dressed this afternoon, I noticed a really funky smell. I sniffed all around, then noticed the smell got stronger the closer I got to the clothes Mickey and I wore out. Sure enough, the nasty smell was coming from those clothes. I thought about binning them instead of washing them! LOL To think I walked around smelling like that 24/7 for years and didn't even notice it. Bleccchh! You know, it's weird. Smoking really messes with your voice and your lung capacity in a big way...so why is it that almost every musician I've ever met smokes?! Go figure. Out of the 3 non-smoking musicians, 2 used to smoke. Wanda has been quit for about 8 or 9 years, and Marie for about 6 years. See...long term quits are possible! Also, my dad has been quit for 24 years. It can be done....this stupid flipping monkey can be beaten.