mayorrock

**EDIT**
"Creed's sound is my sound," Stapp says, lounging on a sofa backstage before an appearance on "The Tonight Show." "I think my record is going to speak for itself to the Creed fans. I think it's going to be like when Sting left The Police."

Like when Sting left The Police? Am I wrong: Didn't Creed suck some ROYAL fucking dick? Will a renaming, a ripped-off sound (even if it was "his") and claiming similarity to Sting/Police change that? Oh my god I hate Creedapp sooooooo much!!!

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I am an ex-smoker.

It was around this time 2 years ago when I finally weaned myself from cigars -- my method of quitting. I started to quit about 3 years ago and, considering the life situations and the fact that I went from 3 packs a day to none overnight, did a great job. I battled a horrible break-up, a horrible move to St. Fucking Louis (my most hated city), a horrible time in the career -- finally ran out of money and had to give up on the merger -- a sometimes horrible "depression" that came with that and a swelling of some 50 lbs...for about six months before I said, "fuck it... what's the point now?"

I started to revitalize the career in the fall when I started working freelance back in Chicago. Life seemed to be back on track. I decided to quit again. This time, I used cigars instead of the gum. This worked; I would buy a mixture of good and okay cigars and would allow myself to smoke as much as I felt I needed and would decide a weekly cut-down schedule after a few weeks. I would test my cravings but not too far. The most important part (considering I believe I about died because of my lungs) was to not inhale. Going from 3 packs of full flavored menthol a day to 3-4 cigars a day seemed miniscule.

I fucked with my subconscious by sleeping in whatever clothes I was wearing and not brushing my teeth at night, leaving me with this awful stench and foul taste in my mouth in the morning. Gross, I know... But remember, it worked. Eventually I would stop buying the nice cigars and started limiting the daily cigars from 3 to 2 to 1 to halves and so on..

Then I took a meeting with Leo Burnett/Marlboro around Dec 9th (if memory serves). I've been fairly independent throughout my career, but I've always set goals along the way. Meet Carlos Segura in a for-hire environment. Check. Make a ton of money. Check. Die in NYC as a well-known and respected exec/cd...in progress. Have an apple and work on the infamous smoking floors of Leo Burnett....meeting confirmed.

Sadly, the timing couldn't have been worse. I walked out of the elevator of the 29th (??right??) floor with what I considered my last cigar in my pocket. The irony revealed itself over the 7 hour interview process and I ultimately decided I couldn't promote smoking and went on to stay independent and focused on reforming Lakonic.

A career highlight, as lame as that sounds for some of my agency-savvy associates, sure... but still the most memorable moment of that trip involved Chicago, not Burnett. I love this city for all it's worth. Winter moments are my favorite and there's something about the life I feel being downtown in December. The night before the meeting, I met up with buddy and former intern/co-worker Currey as Govnors for some brews (and a cigar). We were both set for interview meetings in the morning: me, Burnett, him BBDO. We laughed about this and so on and so forth.

The next morning I left my HOB suite in my double breasted nonsense with a bullshit cashmere scarf and jacket smoking my next to last cigar and feeling all frou frou again, portfolio in hand and head held high; snow started to fall as I hopped onto the sidewalk and things just feel so right. Waiting to cross Wacker, I see Currey on the other side of the street. We laugh when we see each other and begin to walk as the light changes. It's snowing, he's smoking a cigarette, I'm smoking my cigar and we're crossing Wacker at the same time to two potentially life-altering, big agency meetings. We shake hands on the median and wish each other luck going to Leo Burnett and BBDO respectively. Wow.

Talk about an ad man's ultimate optimistic scenario.

I ended up dropping the cigar as I turned around and literally kicked it to the curb. This didn't say much to me at the time, but it says so much now. I would stop smoking right after the meetings and decide a non-smoker in a Marlboro environment was a bad idea.

But that trip seems to have worked out: Currey now works for me at Lakonic. Isn't it funny how things evolve?

Anyway, I just thought about the non-smoking thing last night and thought I could officially stamp myself as a confident and never changing ex-smoker. Considering the turmoil and stress Ive been subjected to that hasnt made me start again and my general distaste (thank you subconscious) for any smoke smelling environment, I think its a very safe observation.

In other news: I had another great week and weekend (which seems to be the theme all of a sudden) with the girl and you, you, you, a couple peeps I dont know the SG name for and a few others that dont need to see boobies to live their lives but are still cool. This next weekend looks like it should be an interesting one, too Please wish that I dont have a Greg Focker episodeokay? Were bringing the dog, so I think Im more worried about a dog incident than a cat The weekend after that Ill be healing from my xmas present to myself and hopefully finishing the shopping extravaganza. The weekend after that should be a ho ho ho-rrific (in a good way) time and days later may lead into a Pam Focker episode you can hope for that if you like!!

Did you really read this whole thing? Evidently this is what i do while listening to Lagwagon and eating some crazy chicken and ranch dressing pizza contraption...

Merry Christmas or weird Jewish days to you.