Second hand smoke is back

Friday night, some girl friends and I decided to go line dancing at the Yellow Rose. Lessons started at 8pm, so we met at 7:45... and the place was closed for remodeling. (Though their website didn't say this. I wonder if they just couldn't get the place heated with the cold temps and that was their excuse?)

So we headed to my old hang-out, Julia's to get everyone together and figure out what to do next. As we sat at our table chatting, I noticed one of the people who work at Julia's light up a cigarette. I looked around and quite a few people were smoking. I asked the bar tender and she said that in order to keep up with the larger places that allowed smoking, they had to also. She named off a list of places that allowed smoking inside, most I hadn't heard of, but obviously south of town, it's not uncommon to run into smoking inside the clubs and bars.

At 10pm we decided to go to another local place for karaoke, Down the Pike. Sure enough, lots of smoking there. On the eating side there was little smoke, so we sat on that side, close enough to hear the karaoke DJ. The other side with pool tables was heavy with smoke. I had to walk through that area a couple of times - to put in my song and then to make sure I didn't miss my name being called. We had a great time there and the munchies we ordered were very good. However, we walked out stinking horribly of cigarette smoke. I probably won't go there again for karaoke. The place was packed and in the 2 hours we were there, I only got to sing once.

When I got home, Jason said he could smell me across the room. He was surprised to hear that so many places south of town allowed smoking. I woke up the next morning with a scratchy voice. Now, you may think that it's from singing or having to talk loudly over the music. However, the week before we went to our favorite (non-smoking) tavern and I sang 6 or 7 songs, and also had to talk over the noise. I didn't have the sore throat or scratchy voice the next morning. I also had sinus issues all day Saturday. My body just doesn't do well around cigarette smoke. (Does anyone's?)

The problem is that there is little enforcement so the bars aren't worried about allowing smoking inside. Also, I'd definitely turn in the 2nd place we went to, but not the first place - I have friends who work there and don't want to risk them having to close. So maybe that's another problem, no one is turning in the locations that allow smoking. (What do you think, should I turn in both places and not just the one?)

Bottom line is that the law is the law. It hasn't been changed; smoking is still banned inside businesses for the state of Ohio. I'll continue to hang out at our favorite places that don't allow smoking. The little tavern around the corner from our house, Red Carpet Tavern, is still our first choice and I appreciate it even more now that I know that they could allow smoking, but they don't. And their food is pretty good. :)