My lungs feel excited today. So do my clothes and my husband. Pennsylvania finally joined the rest of the civilized world and banned smoking in public places. It's hard for me to express how much this ban means to me, in all aspects of my existence. I can take my laptop to a bar and write with a beer if I feel like it. I can meet friends after work wearing clothes I don't have to burn afterword. I'll never have to swat away the awful smoke smell when Big Perm sneaks a butt at a baseball game.
Most important to me, I can spend more time at the rugby bar. I really love that place and it means a lot to me to spend time with my teammates after practices and games. The social atmosphere of rugby is absolutely what has shaped my life and kept me playing for ten years. But in a tiny little bar filled with many, many smokers, the air just gets too much for me. I can't do it. I start feeling sick, my nose stops up, and I have to soak my glasses in bleach because even the nose pads reek of stench when I leave.
But not for long! Starting 90 days from this moment, I will sit on a stool at Ruggers long into the night drinking celebration beer from my personalized mug (which I keep forgetting to pay for...) and breathing deeply.
After years of nomadic temporary employment, advanced degrees, and chocolate ice cream, a rugger with a love of knitting and a cyclist with no domestic skills signed a Ketubah and bought a house in Pittsburgh.
3 comments:
"Bars and taverns where food sales don't exceed 20 percent of the bar's total gross sales -- and which don't permit people under age 18 to enter -- can still allow smoking."
I hope the rugby bar sells some food, or else lets in under-18, because otherwise they might still be allowed to smoke...
Good point PLM, they'll still have the burden of proof and have to comply until they get exception status. DC has the same rule and only one cigar bar made that exception. So I think you're golden
i love having lawyer friends!
Post a Comment