I am the type of gal who, when faced with the common party question: "do you smoke?" (generally referring to weed), responds with the punny Alaskan line:
I do, but I only smoke salmon.
It's gotten me out of so many situations I would rather not participate in, and party people go about their way, giggling about that funny Alaskan girl.
Smoking weed is just not my thing!
And just like that, I am left alone from the stinky smell of marijuana.
Today, however, I could escape no such thing.
You see, it was my first day at my first job. A job located alllllll the way in the city, some two hour commute from my humble abode here in Walnut Creek, in the iconic and eclectic neighborhood of Haight Ashbury.
The backbone of the hippie counterculture movement, it's a part of San Francisco you'll often find to be a bit different than the rest of the city. A piece of history, I've always felt drawn to the area myself, until I was stuck in the middle of the pot capital on 420.
To put it bluntly (pun definitely intended), it's a celebration of smoking pot on 4/20, or 4:20. So today was a double doobie (pun also intended): smoke pot at 4:20 on 4/20.
Unbeknownst to me, I was smack dab in the middle of this celebration of sorts and being in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, I was exposed to more than just your average pot smoker.
There were policemen everywhere. Insane drug users doing way more than your casual puff. Poop on the street. Obnoxious drunkards approaching you at every turn. Drug busts as you patiently wait for the bus to take you away from it all. And the heaviest smelliest cloud of marijuana coating the street and wafting into your nostrils.
It was not the place I wanted to be in, let me tell you!
A long day, to say the least.
On the bright side, I did enjoy my time at my new job and on the way home, I saw a meteor shower in the sky.
In my experience, I don’t need to injest/inhale/smoke (what do you do with weed??) something to feel “high” because there are so many things around me that make me feel just as good, as mentioned below.
Drinking coffee, napping, a good workout, finding a great deal on a marvelous vintage dress, or heck, eating anything with butter. I don’t have the desire to smoke weed if I’m deterred by the smell. Why put something in my body that physically makes my nostrils recoil?
Regardless of whether you smoke pot or not, I love you either way. In my case, it’s simply a personal choice and I hope to never again have to go through such a bud time (last pun, I promise!).