Heading into a two-week vacation, one gets certain expectations, Han Solo might have described them as delusions of grandeur. Besides all of the non-working, there are a ton of things one wants to get done for themselves. Whether it’s cleaning the house or seeing friends or maybe reading a book, every vacation comes with a plan and then vacation hits and that plan goes out the window. As the saying goes, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. In this case, the proverbial face punch would be vacation. And speaking honestly, is there a better punch than vacation? Maybe a nap? A bag of Doritos? I’m open to suggestions.

Heading into my two-week vacation I had plans some of which I shared with you here. I was going to play video games. Watch some movies. Watch some television. Read some books. Write some columns. Relax. These plans were so vivid, I had everything but a dry erase board with each day of vacation mapped out with activities. It was going to work out beautifully and I was going to maximize all vacation hours.

Turns out, vacation hit, I turned forty and didn’t want to do a damn thing. At all. I hadn’t had a legit vacation all year and it dawned on me… I was pretty tired. Like exhausted. And while I wanted to do a bunch of things, I also didn’t want to do anything. I wanted to just exist and reset my mind and that usually comes with a chain attached to the back of my mind making me feel guilty that I’m not doing things. Things like writing on this very site. This year though, I found a way to turn that off. I didn’t allow the chain to attach to my brain, and while I wanted to feel bad about not writing or playing more games, I just didn’t. And it was great. I was able to fully get my relax on.

And it felt glorious on levels that would rival whatever Lone Star felt when Yogurt told him he was a prince.

While I wasn’t writing here, I was existing, living my best life in fact. I was watching two superb shows in Netflix’s Midnight Mass (which is the best novel I watched all year) and Squid Game which has made me nervous every time my four-year-old niece suggests we play a game. There are many things I want to say about these shows, especially Midnight Mass which not only has reawakened my love for Neil Diamond- my very first concert as a wee lad- but I haven’t stopped thinking about it since we finished watching. Geeklings, I sobbed at the ending. Sobbed at the beauty and the brilliance of the story. When the credits crawled, I just wanted to start it up again and live on Crockett Island a little longer. There’s nothing better than a story that makes it difficult to say goodbye. Case and point, the marble episode of Squid Game that I still have not mentally recovered from. I may never recover from it if we’re speaking honestly.

When I wasn’t watching spellbinding television, I was watching The Many Saints of Newark which has made me all types of nostalgic for The Sopranos. The Mrs. has never watched, and I’ve been itching for a re-watch. If there was ever a time to head back to the Bada Bing it would be now considering I’ve put the theme song back in rotation on my Apple Music playlist. All I need is a cigar while driving and I’ll be living the dream. We just need to make it through Spooky Season first because it’s horror movies all the time in our casa.

I read two books (Star Wars High Republic; Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland and The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward). I went to NYCC and met a large chunk of the cast from The Boys. I played Earthward. I became listless. I bought bright red Adidas slides that I plan on wearing with socks in the winter. Mostly, I just powered down and it was so freeing and so very, very needed.

Now, I’m ready to get back into the swing of things as we look to close out the year here at I Am Geek. Thank you for your patience. It’s time to get back to work.