I am spoiled. I live in California. There are smokers, but we are such anti-smoking there that I am sure most smokers feel uncomfortable or defensive when they light up a cigarette. They are chased outside and relegated to small corners far away from the rest of the population. Heck! A few years ago in Santa Monica, they have even passed an ordinance that says someone cannot smoke within 25 feet of other people on a public sidewalk.
So, imagine the shock I experienced coming to Vegas. There is smoke everywhere. I mean, everywhere. People even smoke in the bathrooms… Openly.
My eyes burned, and I wanted to gag, but it wasn’t going to do any good. That next breath I was gasping for would be smoke-filled, too. You step outside to get away from the smoky interior only to be bombarded by it outside, too.
Blech!
My clothes, my hair, my skin smelled worse than an ashtray. Honestly, how people tolerate it is a mystery to me. It’s nasty. Getting home into highly regulated California was nice. I do have issues with how regulated California is, but I have to say, I do like not having to inhale someone else’s bad habit.
For those of you who do smoke and enjoy my blog, I have nothing against you. I just can’t abide cigarette smoke.
I felt so fumigated I thought I’d never breath clean air (or relatively clean air) again. Thankfully, I was wrong. 😀
We felt the same way on our first cruise in the – wait for it – onboard casino. We cut through to get to a club where we wanted to dance. Henceforth, we would down one deck to avoid it because of the permanent haze.
What is it about casinos and smoking, Jim? It’s almost as if people feel compelled to smoke when they are in them. Instead of designated smoking areas, they have designated non-smoking areas. How do you regulate the air? I just don’t understand how you can stop smoke from migrating into the non-smoking area.
I’ve been to the 2 casinos here in CT many, many times. I know people who don’t smoke/smoke occasionally who smoke their heads off while there. Gambling and smoking must go together like PB&J. The non-smoking areas are far enough away from the rest of the casino that it doesn’t become an issue with the smoke drifting over there. And I must point out that the 2 casinos here are on Native American land and are exempt from most Federal laws. They put in a non-smoking area for customers like you, but they were not required to do so. In fact, when they opened, neither had a non-smoking area at all. Good times. lol
I am sure there was a demand for the non-smoking area, or it wouldn’t be there. Casinos don’t do things just to be nice. Actually, very few businesses do things just to be nice. And I don’t gamble. LOL I like the money I’ve earned too much to throw it away. LOL
Gonna buy a plane ticket. Fly to CA. Find Marci’s house. Go inside. Chainsmoke an entire pack of cigarettes. Leave Marci’s house. Fly back to CT. 😀
Hahaha, Joe. You do realize I know where you live, right? 😉
Yeah, some places are so bad a person can’t breath.
About like that, yes, Shawn.
Yet another reason I’ll never go to Vegas. I won a cruise years ago, and husband and I tried gambling in the on-board casino. I’ve never been so bored in my life. Him too. So since we don’t like gambling, and find the artificiality of the whole place way too jarring, we’ll continue to spend all of our vacations in the woods, camping and enjoying the real stars at night, not the untalented celebrities on the stages.
To each their own, I guess.