Heidy-ho...

good neighbor! Dang, the only time I can see Wilson is on Home Improvement reruns...I miss that dude.

The 69 pilgrims from our six-parish linkage are nearly four days into their trip to Roma...how well I remember our trek in 1996. Is the trip of a lifetime (thank you, Uncle Bill and Aunt Mabel) and one I shall never forget

How I wish I'd had a laptop back then...(still don't have one, actually). One of the parishioners is blogging whilst on the trip...it feels like she took all of us along with her! You can read (and travel) too...http://www.hejlikwoman.blogspot.com/

I was still smoking in 1996. If it hadn't been for someone (most likely my guardian angel) leaving the section of the New York Times containing the crossword puzzle and having a big bag of mints to suck on I might've croaked from a nicotine fit! That is a lonnnnnnggg flight, lemme tell ya.

That NYTimes crossword took me from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany to complete, but complete it, I did....and I kept it, too! Did I mention it was my first ever NYTimes crossword? They are tough.

Smoking in Rome...well, I'm surprised I didn't get lost, trying to sneak off to grab a smoke, excusing myself from the table to go outside to smoke, trying to hide the hand holding my cig kind of behind me, so no one would see. Good grief! I smelled like a chimney & didn't do the Spanish Steps cause I couldn't.

Still, I wouldn't have missed the trip for anything. The cradle of my faith...singing Gregorian chant at Mass in St. Peter's, being part of the group received in private audience by Pope John Paul II, and him shaking hands individually with the 200+ pilgrims encircling the room (the Sala Clementina) so that we could each have our pictures taken with His Holiness...and when he died (may he RIP), realizing that the room where he lay in state was the same room in which our audience was held...well, I cried my eyes out.

It took another 5 years for me to finally cooperate with God's will and kick nic(otine). On a daily basis I do my WITS, WIN to stay smokefree & leave the rest up to God. He hasn't failed me yet & I want it to stay that way.

If you're reading this and still puffing away I hope you'll take a serious look at yourself in the mirror. Lent is coming...a perfect time for turning over a new leaf and beginning a new life.

Lent is about conversion, so converting yourself from a smoker to a person who is smokefree fits right in. The smoking cessation support group message board over at WebMD is the place I found early in my quit...and it is there this wimp found HOPE. I realized that for me to stay smokefree over the long haul would mean serious nic maintenance on a daily basis.

Well, I'm grateful to say it's working! It has been 7 yrs., 9 mos. (one day/hr/min/sec at a time) since I smoked, thanks be to God, family, and friends.

You can do it...I did. If I can anybody can. Guaranteed. Pray for the willingness to be willing.

--Still a Grateful Quitter--Mary Ann

"I'd rather be a quitter with an occasional urge to smoke than a smoker with the constant desire to quit." --From Junkie Thinkin'