I did very little and it felt terrific.

The most exhausting thing I think I did on vacation was watch Usain Bolt run. Watching that guy run is like observing evolution’s next development. What Michael Phelps did was incredible for the endurance and versatility and pressure he dealt with, but what Bolt did was more like watching a superhero.

So I watched the Olympics on vacation, managed to squeeze in another viewing of The Dark Knight (bringing me up to 6,034 viewings), and felt a heavy amount of stress lifted.

When I used to be at the DA’s office, stress could pop up every once in a while, but when you left the office you could leave knowing that no one was going to try to bother you until the next day. But now, in the private sector, and with the worst invention since the nuclear bomb and breast reduction, AKA the blackberry, I am now in a culture of 24-7 stress. I thought about putting my blackberry on vibrate, but that is too stark a reminder of work. The vibrate jolts you out of your comfort zone, like ripping off a band aid. I prefer, in a masochistic sort of way, the chilling silence of the blinking red light that alerts me of a message. It is sort of like my own personal Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a frightening machine that controls my life.

So for one week I was able to feel stress free and it felt terrific. So I went down to DC to see my nephews and their parents.

The highlight of my time there was definitely seeing my older nephew give a big hug to my younger nephew. Gabriel, the older has needed some time to adjust to having a brother so seeing him give him a hug was great, but not for sentimental reasons. It was great because he hugged him and then tripped, taking both of them down like some sort of diaper clad version of the ending of Rocky II.

All in all vacation was great, but it came to a grinding halt Sunday night. Doing a show in Hoboken for 6 comics and 5 audience members seemed like it would suck, and it did. But funny how that seems like Heaven once your blackberry starts blinking at you.