Smoke and Mirrors

I mentioned to my friend Aerie, a loyal blog reader, that in my dreams, I'm almost always smoking, or at least holding a cigarette. This is particularly odd, since I don't smoke and really never smoked. Yes, I tried a puff, mostly out of curiosity in 9th grade. I almost gagged and asked the person who had let me have a drag off her cigarette - "Ugh, that tastes so bad, why would you ever put it in your mouth AGAIN?" When intoxicated, I have occasionally attempted to smoke, though my sober compatriots inform me that I mostly wave the cigarettes around and occasionally take a very shallow hit off of it. But, about a month ago, I woke up after a dream that ended with me unsuccessfully trying to light (another) cigarette. When I thought about it and subsequently began to pay attention, I realized that more often than not, when I'm dreaming, Dream Me is smoking. It's never the plot or focus of the dream, but just a normal part of what I'm doing. Or in the dream, I slip outside to have a smoke. Or will be talking to someone while I'm lighting one. I don't know why. Some of the dream interpretation websites say that smoking a cigarette is a lucky omen. Some say it's a way of establishing or wishing for independence or being cool. One says that it's a sign that my subconscious knows there is some illness in my body. One suggested that they are phallic symbols OR indicate a destruction of resources. Hmm, seems the Internet won't be that much help on this one. Maybe my subconscious is trying to kill me by encouraging me to smoke. Another recurring oddity is the inability to see myself in the mirror in my dreams. It's never something scary or weird, it's more just like I'm never positioned right, I see other things in the mirror, even what's behind me, but my reflection is not in sight. Not even going to try the web on that one...