rhode island went nonsmoking on march 1st and it has already fucked me one day so far. i usually make between $30-$60 on a tuesday at the little bar in the club but i made $12.

the regulars didnt come in and neither did anyone else. im not looking forward to the next few months. we do have a huge deck which will be our savings grace (well... it is anyway) because its the big draw to the club. i was screwing around on
craigslist last night and read all of the smoking vs. nonsmoking rants and raves... i wrote this...

First off, I am a smoker.
I work in a bar.
Do you want proof that this is going to hurt business? I have it.
Sure, this has only been in effect for 46 hours now, but I have seen a great drop off in business already. My regulars didn't come in yesterday.
On a day that I would have normally made $60+ in tips, I made $12.

Yeah yeah yeah I'll go outside. I don't care. Its kind of nice actually. (not right now of course)
But come the summer, when I get 5 minutes to quell my nicotine habit out on the patio of the bar I work at ... not one of you nonsmoking bastards better say anything if I'm standing next to you cause "I'M OUTSIDE." I'll defile your drink so badly you'll shit rivers for 3 weeks straight.

While we're at it ... why don't you nonsmokers come enforce the rule??? You can take post in the bathroom and make sure no one is sneaking a butt... YOU can tell the 300 pound guy that's half in the bag to put his cigarette out cause I don't want to. I don't care if he smokes ... but seeing you care so much ... you enforce the rule ... and for free too ... seeing the bar is such an enjoyable place to be now, you can pay us back by working at no cost.

Like I said... I'm a smoker.
I work in a bar. I knew that people smoked at bars. I still took the job there knowing I would be essentially "smoking" 400 cigarettes a night in second hand smoke.

I think we are all missing the point here in being on one side or the other. I think what the big issue is the loss of choice. I think instead of being divided... we should be for choice. We should be for smoking and nonsmoking sections. We should be for smoking and nonsmoking establishments.

It is completely possible to have both sides satisfied. As for me... I'm not so much minding going outside. I get to meet a lot more people that way. Smokers are much more personable and pleasant I find... (and no... i cant say that for all of them ... its a generalization)

So I'll see you in the summer because I know you will all be crawling like leaches to the bar to get your drink on. Oh ... and we don't have air conditioning ... so you will want to be outside with all of us poisonous disgusting smokers and you'll have to deal with it.
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