Having spent most of our time in Southern California over the last few years, we’ve become accustomed to the “new reality.” That is, the lack of quality sightings while driving or walking around. Today, though for some reason, was different.
First, we were at a local strip mall where, day after day, even the outside tables at Starbucks and the bagel shop sit for hours without hosting a single smoker. Today, standing outside the drugstore, was a very pretty young Asian woman devouring a Marlboro Red, and playing with her smoke after every drag: exhaling slowly and watching her smoke, doing nose exhales and giggling, and practicing her smoke rings.
Then, we had to drop someone off at the airport – an airport which fetish friends had told us is “without doubt, the worst airport for smokers in the world” – and we can’t usually disagree. Today, however, over the course of an hour there were perhaps a dozen attractive women smoking right outside the concourse – including a well-dressed business woman in her mid-20s dangling an all-white 100 and smoking hands-free while on her cell phone, several college-aged girls who had two Marlboro Lights each in the space of 15 minutes, and a young black woman doing cheek-hollowing drags on her Newport 100, followed by snaps and nose exhales.
Anywhere in America these days, that would be a good day of sightings. In SoCal, it’s a year’s worth!
Maybe it was just something in the air? If so, we hope it doesn’t go away soon