Once again, the usual disclaimer: I am not being paid to review, use or blog at all about Johnson Creek Smoke Juice's products. I just like their shit so I write about it.
I had to sit down today and refill my travel pouch--top off my bottles and carts, take out stuff I'm not using enough to carry around, and took the opportunity to play with a couple of mixes. One's new, the other is a Chocolate-Covered Cherry I've been playing with (recipe later). That's when tragedy struck!
I discovered that I was out of jcsmoke.com's Red Oak Rainier juice. I went thru a half-ounce bottle in 11 days.
I knew I'd like it but when I placed my order for my Vea and juices to use in it, I had to draw a line somewhere, so I'd only gotten 1/2 oz of the Rainier. Now I have about 5 drops left in my glass bottle. I knew I should have ordered more, but I didn't expect to vape it every night either. Fine, so next month I get 2 Tundra and 1 full oz of Rainier, since the Tundra is the daily one I put on the eCig every night so I have a full cart overnight and to start out with in the morning.
On the quitting front, I stuck to my 8 smellsticks today but I'm getting worse insomnia again, so time to suck it up and get thru it. I have a small supply of Ambien, so I'll resort to it when I can't stand the no-brain from lack of sleep and revisit the subject with my doctor next week. So, tomorrow I allot 8 again, then 7 Wednesday and reconsider from there. Getting withdrawal symptoms at all when I've only cut down has kind of blindsided me--I expected them once I quit completely, but didn't expect them so soon and they started last week already.
Feel free to drop suggestions for dealing with withdrawal in the comments--not sure why I'm having them at all since I'm using plenty of nicotine replacement (see the title of this post), vaping throughout the day using 24mg/100 ml strength juice plus still smoking some (8 down from 1-1.5 packs/day).
And no, smartass (I know there's one of you out there--there always is), "Quit vaping and just smoke your nicotine like normal people" is NOT a valid suggestion so don't bother. Actually, go ahead and do it--it'll give me something to giggle at when I delete your comment since all comments are moderated before they hit the page.
Time for bed (or try to sleep anyhow) so here's the mix for that Chocolate Covered Cherry mess that's making my room smell awesome and my newly-awake tastebuds squee:
2 parts Johnson Creek Red Oak Rainier Smoke Juice
1 part Johnson Creek Original Chocolate Truffle Smoke Juice
Mix, steep 2 days, then fill a cart and pig out!
If you're allergic to Propylene Glycol (the main allergy turning up amongst vapers) use the Red Oak line Swiss Dark--but expect the results to be thick, because I'm told the Swiss Dark is so thick it doesn't vape well or at all unless you mix it down anyhow. I may also add just a little bit of Vanilla once I get some on hand--vanilla always rounds out chocolate flavors and brings them out so it might really kick this mix in the ass even tho it's already pretty rockin'.
Have fun and happy vaping!
Showing posts with label Smoke Juice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smoke Juice. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
No good deed
Yesterday was an emotionally rough one. I'd done someone a favor, one that apparently wasn't made known even among closest friends, and so I wound up taking crap over "not being supportive" when... oh, hell with it! The reasons don't matter, but another situation that I need to learn to deal with without groping for the nearest smellstick showed up (dramatic bullshit that I occasionally get roped into), and about three hours into fielding texts and social networking posts over it I finally picked one up, had about three drags, then had to leave the car to go into a store for my mom, who's been doing the driving lately because driving stresses the neck injury I suffered in March.
She smoked the rest of the cigarette before I could get back to the car, which was about five minutes after I'd left it.
Maybe feeling ticked off is unreasonable, since I'd bummed the damned thing from her in the first place. What got to me was that I'd broken down and asked for it but wasn't allowed to finish it? What kind of shit is that?!?!?!?
I did say it probably wasn't a reasonable mindset, remember?
I did allow myself an extra to replace it--figured as long as I'd dealt with that kind of stress for that long and had already started a smoke, I may as well finish it with one of my own (I like them better than hers, even tho I'm not liking any of them nearly as much as I had been before I bought my Vea from jcsmoke.com). I also found a pack of Djarum clove cigars (thanks to new legislation about what used to be called "clove cigarettes" they are now "cigars". No idea who the mental midget was who cooked that one up, but they're the same things as before with a one-word change to the packaging. My tax dollars at work.) so I'll be adding one of those per day til I kill off the pack or give it away to someone I know who loves them, whichever comes before the 31st or I get so sick of smellsticks that I toss them before that date.
I'm beginning to see the point of a quit date--I'm benefiting by having some room to figure out strategies for staying inside my allowance by using other coping skills in situations that used to trigger my typical "Bork this in the anus--I'm going out for a cigarette!" response. It's also letting me alter other parts of my lifestyle to help deal with the physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms.
I realized a couple of nights ago that it's letting my friends adjust to me as a non-smoker also. My best friend Kirby (until I hear a name she'd rather be called) responded to my "I'm quitting" announcement with, "Aw, now I can't go out for smokes with you anymore!" That's when I told her about the event we'd been at earlier in September where I'd been told vaping was something "We (royal version) decided we didn't want (that) around here", so that likely I'd be out with her anyhow, and even if vaping were allowed indoors I'd miss seeing the people I'd run into by smoking outdoors so I'd probably follow her out for awhile just like always.
Since I've been up on numbers again, I'm readjusting my smellstick allowance--today I started with six Newports and one Djarum in the pack in my cigarette case (I do hope JCSJ makes a pocket case for my Vea--that's a rant I'll save for another day, missing my smoke case) and I'll stay there thru Saturday and see how I've done.
So--numbers summary:
Wednesday: 9 smellsticks plus a little bit of one.
Thursday: 6 allowed plus a clove cigarette
So far today, I've had 3 along with coffee (over a space of about 2 hours--used to be I'd snarf 3 in the first half-hour after crawling out of bed, so it's a big improvement) and one more split between 2 rounds of food, so I'm pretty well on track.
I should note about all the talk about the company where I get my equipment and nicotine liquid: I am not a paid spokesperson. I receive no special treatment for mentioning them here or anywhere else. I just like my system, the liquids available there, and the customer service can't be beat.
Remember that one liquid I didn't like so well? I mentioned it in a contact email I sent while asking about technical specs on the equipment I'm using (another post is coming about what's available for those of us who vape instead of smoke, and holy Vegetable Glycerin, Batman, it's a whole new world!) and the next morning I found an answer telling me that a pre-paid label was on the way for me to send the bottle I didn't like back to them, with a note in the box to let them know if they should give me back my money or if I'd take an exchange! Yep, they know I've opened it, used some, doesn't matter--I get to send it back and get an ounce of Tundra instead.
Too freakin' sweet! The Tundra is a whopping strong menthol, light on the tobacco flavor and just like all their flavors available in strengths from 24 mg nicotine/100 ml fluid to zero nic formula.
Time to go do something else--I have a phone call coming in a few minutes so I'll be taking that and then deciding what to make for supper since food is so dang yummy now that I'm more inclined to go back to playing around with new recipes, like the egg salad I made for lunch. I'll be posting those recipes along with all this too--I like to invent new food and that urge is back now that I can taste the nuances of what I can do to food again.
Have a good day--I'm planning to!
She smoked the rest of the cigarette before I could get back to the car, which was about five minutes after I'd left it.
Maybe feeling ticked off is unreasonable, since I'd bummed the damned thing from her in the first place. What got to me was that I'd broken down and asked for it but wasn't allowed to finish it? What kind of shit is that?!?!?!?
I did say it probably wasn't a reasonable mindset, remember?
I did allow myself an extra to replace it--figured as long as I'd dealt with that kind of stress for that long and had already started a smoke, I may as well finish it with one of my own (I like them better than hers, even tho I'm not liking any of them nearly as much as I had been before I bought my Vea from jcsmoke.com). I also found a pack of Djarum clove cigars (thanks to new legislation about what used to be called "clove cigarettes" they are now "cigars". No idea who the mental midget was who cooked that one up, but they're the same things as before with a one-word change to the packaging. My tax dollars at work.) so I'll be adding one of those per day til I kill off the pack or give it away to someone I know who loves them, whichever comes before the 31st or I get so sick of smellsticks that I toss them before that date.
I'm beginning to see the point of a quit date--I'm benefiting by having some room to figure out strategies for staying inside my allowance by using other coping skills in situations that used to trigger my typical "Bork this in the anus--I'm going out for a cigarette!" response. It's also letting me alter other parts of my lifestyle to help deal with the physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms.
I realized a couple of nights ago that it's letting my friends adjust to me as a non-smoker also. My best friend Kirby (until I hear a name she'd rather be called) responded to my "I'm quitting" announcement with, "Aw, now I can't go out for smokes with you anymore!" That's when I told her about the event we'd been at earlier in September where I'd been told vaping was something "We (royal version) decided we didn't want (that) around here", so that likely I'd be out with her anyhow, and even if vaping were allowed indoors I'd miss seeing the people I'd run into by smoking outdoors so I'd probably follow her out for awhile just like always.
Since I've been up on numbers again, I'm readjusting my smellstick allowance--today I started with six Newports and one Djarum in the pack in my cigarette case (I do hope JCSJ makes a pocket case for my Vea--that's a rant I'll save for another day, missing my smoke case) and I'll stay there thru Saturday and see how I've done.
So--numbers summary:
Wednesday: 9 smellsticks plus a little bit of one.
Thursday: 6 allowed plus a clove cigarette
So far today, I've had 3 along with coffee (over a space of about 2 hours--used to be I'd snarf 3 in the first half-hour after crawling out of bed, so it's a big improvement) and one more split between 2 rounds of food, so I'm pretty well on track.
I should note about all the talk about the company where I get my equipment and nicotine liquid: I am not a paid spokesperson. I receive no special treatment for mentioning them here or anywhere else. I just like my system, the liquids available there, and the customer service can't be beat.
Remember that one liquid I didn't like so well? I mentioned it in a contact email I sent while asking about technical specs on the equipment I'm using (another post is coming about what's available for those of us who vape instead of smoke, and holy Vegetable Glycerin, Batman, it's a whole new world!) and the next morning I found an answer telling me that a pre-paid label was on the way for me to send the bottle I didn't like back to them, with a note in the box to let them know if they should give me back my money or if I'd take an exchange! Yep, they know I've opened it, used some, doesn't matter--I get to send it back and get an ounce of Tundra instead.
Too freakin' sweet! The Tundra is a whopping strong menthol, light on the tobacco flavor and just like all their flavors available in strengths from 24 mg nicotine/100 ml fluid to zero nic formula.
Time to go do something else--I have a phone call coming in a few minutes so I'll be taking that and then deciding what to make for supper since food is so dang yummy now that I'm more inclined to go back to playing around with new recipes, like the egg salad I made for lunch. I'll be posting those recipes along with all this too--I like to invent new food and that urge is back now that I can taste the nuances of what I can do to food again.
Have a good day--I'm planning to!
Monday, October 8, 2012
Cut-down test run #1
I'm considering quitting smoking using an eCigarette system--I hadn't bought it with that in mind, but the difference between eCigs and analogs is pointing up things I didn't notice about how smoking smells and tastes once you're not drowning yourself in tobacco smoke, so I'm giving the idea serious thought since I have something that seems to make it easier than anything else I've ever tried to quit with before. I'll post the whole rambling story about how I got to this point from "Gee, I'm sick of paying ridiculous taxes on cigarettes--it's time to save a few bucks" later on.
When I got up this morning I thought that since I only smoked 6 cigarettes yesterday, a dry run of a cut-down might be interesting. I set out to limit myself to 5 analogs today, just as a dry run to see how this is going to rattle my cage in general. I either picked a really good day for it, or a really bad one.
Morning and early afternoon went all right--stuck to my 2 analogs in the morning, then 1/2 to 1 after meals, then Asuma (who deserves a gold star on his report card) and I remembered we had to pick up some stuff at a couple of places today. I checked my cartomizer and battery--seemed like the cart had a decent amount in it and the battery was good on charge (this system's are lasting me a day and a half), so I left my analogs at home and we took off.
Nasty surprise--the cart started giving out shortly after we left the house. Normally I'd smoke 3-4 while out in the van, and I had to go really easy on the Vea or I'd cook my cart (they're good usually for 2-4 fills and I was on the 2nd. No sense wasting carts--while they're about $2 each I have to get them online, so add shipping to that and it's not exactly like dropping $4 on a cup of coffee, so I want to make them last as long as they can). By the time we got back to the house I was having my first real nic fit, so I went for the easy supply and had an extra half a smoke--part of #4, but did it before eating the hot food I brought home. Not a move I wanted to make but I also didn't want to be too unreasonable while I dealt with the need for tobacco smoke. During the shopping run I'd felt antsy and easily annoyed so I wanted to get a lid on the moodiness before it wrecked the first good weekend I'd had in a month, since I spent most of September sick and hadn't seen much of Asuma during the month.
Turns out that was a less bad thing than I first felt--it took quite awhile to get a handle on the nic fit, longer than I expected, so putting the smoke first probably helped me more than putting it off and being impatient while eating because I felt like I had to get it out of the way to get at what I really wanted.
I was getting back on track after supper and my other half smoke, and was better for a few hours. Then the cart I'd switched over to started tasting bad and acting like it's nearly time for it to die. It happens--the carts are semi-disposable, it's just that it picked a craptastic time to do it. I'd just topped the Tundra (a strong menthol taste very light on tobacco, currently my regular favorite) when we got home, the Rainier (a very tasty cherry, one many say is close to Blu brand's Cherry Crush) cart was close to dry so I had to top it and once they're topped they seem to work better if they sit about 8 hours, so I pulled out a new pre-filled Arctic Menthol (one of the two menthol flavors I'd ordered), then remembered it's close to bedtime and I'd want a full cart then, so I popped on the Chocolate Truffle cart. Ooooohhhhhhhh, baby, this stuff's like nibbling Godiva! I put the eCig to my lips, closed my eyes and prepared for dessert...
...and discovered that the battery picked that precise moment to fucking die.
*Facepalm*
Easy enough to fix--my set's got 2 long-life batteries to make this happen and the pass-through feature would let me vape while it was charging too, it was just the topper. But I didn't toss it at the wall and grab a Newport--I'm watching one battery charge while the other feeds me sweet sweet cocoa-flavored nicotine until time for my bedtime cigarette.
So--I went one over on the allotment I was trying, had a rough evening trying to get on top of a snag, and learned things.
(Oh, shut it--it's my blog and I get to be derpy if I want to--no one's paying me to do this and no one's Superglued your browser to this page so give me a few posts to locate my funny again.)
I think I'll give a 5-analog limit another try tomorrow. It's something I need to learn to deal with, since it's looking like I've gotten to the point where I've found the hard-to-skip analogs and it's time to figure out the coping skills I'll need.
Wish me luck.
When I got up this morning I thought that since I only smoked 6 cigarettes yesterday, a dry run of a cut-down might be interesting. I set out to limit myself to 5 analogs today, just as a dry run to see how this is going to rattle my cage in general. I either picked a really good day for it, or a really bad one.
Morning and early afternoon went all right--stuck to my 2 analogs in the morning, then 1/2 to 1 after meals, then Asuma (who deserves a gold star on his report card) and I remembered we had to pick up some stuff at a couple of places today. I checked my cartomizer and battery--seemed like the cart had a decent amount in it and the battery was good on charge (this system's are lasting me a day and a half), so I left my analogs at home and we took off.
Nasty surprise--the cart started giving out shortly after we left the house. Normally I'd smoke 3-4 while out in the van, and I had to go really easy on the Vea or I'd cook my cart (they're good usually for 2-4 fills and I was on the 2nd. No sense wasting carts--while they're about $2 each I have to get them online, so add shipping to that and it's not exactly like dropping $4 on a cup of coffee, so I want to make them last as long as they can). By the time we got back to the house I was having my first real nic fit, so I went for the easy supply and had an extra half a smoke--part of #4, but did it before eating the hot food I brought home. Not a move I wanted to make but I also didn't want to be too unreasonable while I dealt with the need for tobacco smoke. During the shopping run I'd felt antsy and easily annoyed so I wanted to get a lid on the moodiness before it wrecked the first good weekend I'd had in a month, since I spent most of September sick and hadn't seen much of Asuma during the month.
Turns out that was a less bad thing than I first felt--it took quite awhile to get a handle on the nic fit, longer than I expected, so putting the smoke first probably helped me more than putting it off and being impatient while eating because I felt like I had to get it out of the way to get at what I really wanted.
I was getting back on track after supper and my other half smoke, and was better for a few hours. Then the cart I'd switched over to started tasting bad and acting like it's nearly time for it to die. It happens--the carts are semi-disposable, it's just that it picked a craptastic time to do it. I'd just topped the Tundra (a strong menthol taste very light on tobacco, currently my regular favorite) when we got home, the Rainier (a very tasty cherry, one many say is close to Blu brand's Cherry Crush) cart was close to dry so I had to top it and once they're topped they seem to work better if they sit about 8 hours, so I pulled out a new pre-filled Arctic Menthol (one of the two menthol flavors I'd ordered), then remembered it's close to bedtime and I'd want a full cart then, so I popped on the Chocolate Truffle cart. Ooooohhhhhhhh, baby, this stuff's like nibbling Godiva! I put the eCig to my lips, closed my eyes and prepared for dessert...
...and discovered that the battery picked that precise moment to fucking die.
*Facepalm*
Easy enough to fix--my set's got 2 long-life batteries to make this happen and the pass-through feature would let me vape while it was charging too, it was just the topper. But I didn't toss it at the wall and grab a Newport--I'm watching one battery charge while the other feeds me sweet sweet cocoa-flavored nicotine until time for my bedtime cigarette.
So--I went one over on the allotment I was trying, had a rough evening trying to get on top of a snag, and learned things.
- My boyfriend is one patient dude. I knew this before, but the depths still amaze me.
- Shit happens. Prepare for it.
- Keep a 5-pack of pre-filled Tundras on hand for times like this.
- Shit happens. Prepare for it.
- Take a damned extra cart along and avoid hours of annoyance.
- Shit happens. Prepare for it.
- A pocket-sized pack that will hold my Vea and 1-2 extra carts, preferably leak-resistant or leak-proof, would be a nice way to spend a few bucks in the interest of making this work if I decide to go all the way and quit using my eCig to deal with the transition.
- Did I mention that shit happens and I should expect it to happen, and thus should prepare for it?
- It's not quite time to set a quit date, but I'm toying with October 31.
(Oh, shut it--it's my blog and I get to be derpy if I want to--no one's paying me to do this and no one's Superglued your browser to this page so give me a few posts to locate my funny again.)
I think I'll give a 5-analog limit another try tomorrow. It's something I need to learn to deal with, since it's looking like I've gotten to the point where I've found the hard-to-skip analogs and it's time to figure out the coping skills I'll need.
Wish me luck.
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