In (very weak) defense of my vice:

cigarettes are my vice - my only defense is when you are all having wine with dinner or scotch or sake...i dont get to.
so i have a smoke. sometimes two-
i love smoking but hate what it is.
weak defense . terrible and ugly(maker) habit.
nowadays smoking is like picking your nose in public-
sneaking outside a restaurant/bar for a smoke you are hard pressed to find a light , let alone a smoking buddy.
damnit.
first pack of smokes i bought? A very planned deliquent act...stood outside Macs' Milk..specifically waiting for someone who looked like they were buying smokes..then followed them in...and nervously memorized her order.....
then waited a safe(?) few minutes and went and asked for them,
as nonchalantly as an 13 yr old buying
"benson and hedges delux ultra light 100's"
can be.:

how about that for the beginning of my smoking career/karma....
Difficult, embarrasing, hard and terrible aftertaste.
and it still is.

Despite being thought of as a huge messy metropolis, the los angeles i see, and live in , is quite visually opposite of this:full of wildlife..coyotes birds and spiders mostly..i look out at green rolling hills, like i imagine columbia looks like.. in the distance there is a faint outline of highrises..