My heart's in Wisconsin, but my lungs love Minnesota

It used to be a familiar question: "Smoking or non?"

When I heard it for the first time in several months on Friday night after entering a Milwaukee-area restaurant, it was suddenly jarring. Without realizing it, I had become accustomed to not having that choice. And remembering that most metropolitan areas in Wisconsin still allow smoking in restaurants; having that choice again was kind of disappointing.

What's worse was that on Friday night, as my wife, her family, and I sat down for my first dinner back in my home state this semester, there were no non-smoking tables available. For the first time in months, I had to breathe cigarette smoke.

I don't want to get too preachy about this. "Thou shalt not smoke" is not one of the Ten Commandments, and I know the recent wave of smoking bans nationwide has created some headaches for smokers and particularly for bar owners whose businesses have been hurt. But for a guy whose asthma has put him at odds with cigarette smoke since childhood, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are a dream come true. Smoking bans for bars and restaurants have taken effect in both cities within the past two years — St. Paul's came just a few months before I moved here to attend Luther Seminary.

As I've grown up, various rules have clamped down on smoking more and more. Many restaurants and other businesses have gone smoke-free on their own. I first experienced the smoking-ban phenomenon while visiting my best man last fall in Madison, WI. Sitting down and watching a Wisconsin Badgers game at a major sports bar on State Street without any smoke in the air was surreal.

It was likewise remarkable a month or so ago to walk into a St. Paul bar that was not only filled with Green Bay Packers fans but also devoid of any smoke. More importantly, it's just really nice to be able to go to any restaurant and know that wherever I'm sitting, I won't have to taste smoke along with my meal.

So consider my disappointment to once again butt heads with my old nemesis not only at dinner on Friday but also at the wedding reception that my wife and I attended elsewhere in Southeastern Wisconsin on Saturday. It's amazing how five months in the Twin Cities can spoil a person.

To cities like Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Madison and to counties and states that have done the same; to business owners who have obeyed the new laws despite whatever inconvenience, and to smokers who have either had to adapt or (better yet for your own sake) kicked the habit, I thank you from the bottom of my lungs.