Anxiety and Languish, the Smoking Section

A forced week off, a coin flip, and a carton of cigarettes, team up with a drunk and two sponges to create a wild drug induced vacation ending in human growth.

Or something.

I spent the week in Denver Colorado because I asked someone to flip a coin for my forced vacation destination. Anything is better than seven days at home alone in your own thoughts, and the madness that situation can produce.

A casual person looking to vacation in a big city would probably go online and find various luxury hotels that are obviously begging for tourism with their pricing. Cheap four star, five star hotels with pools and hot tubs and vallet parking, who isn't taking these deals?

Anyone who read the fine print and saw "this is a smoke free premises"

Oh you mean me, the guy who smokes, marginalized for becoming a victim of addiction. Kidding, I love cigarettes, its beyond an addiction. It's a love affair that I treat with drugs and alcohol for a better taste.

So I ended up in Denver's Smoking Section. I don't want to besmirch the area so take it for my nickname. You see, at the rich guys' spaces, I would have to leave the property to smoke and I can't even go to my car to get high because they parked it somewhere for me at the low rate of $35 a day plus tips.

Not in the Smoking Section. I can smoke all day and no one bats an eye. I can eat all the edibles and smoke all the weed, be drunk at 9am if I wanted and it would be okay, because these are my people.

It's been so long that I forgot about them. The downtrodden, the beaten, the unfortunate, and the mentally ill. The kind of people I used to surround myself with before I grew up. I know the rules in the Smoking Section. Keep your eyes down and don't say anything if you see anything. Everyone in the area abides by these rules and it creates a different sense of freedom than those who grew up with cultured lawful neighborhoods. You'd have to live like that to understand it, otherwise I would write something insightful to change your mind. It is a lived experience and nothing more can describe it except for, freedom.

Despite seeing drug deals, prostitutes cat calling, homeless women wearing hotel comforters they stole, guys who just harass everyone who walks by, and the occasional crazy eyed white guy wearing only jean shorts in the winter carrying a long heavy pipe, everyone here in the Smoking Section lives more free than you. They have no master, no bills to pay, and no obligations to live up to. It is amazing.

When the weekend approached, I became curious if the lawmen would push my friends off the main street with brooms. There was a night club and stage theater with big names performing next door. It's not a good look. But what happened surprised me.

All of the homeless and delinquent company quietly disappeared. Even the crazy eyed white guy I avoided all week. This is when I realized, they are here because they want to be left alone. They don't want to be here when you are going to be here.

I was a trespasser this entire week. But,, welcome to the Smoking Section.