the skies of LA look like the water in the bowl after youve had a rough night

and you coulda sworn you flushed but when you toss the TP in there

you see this golden brown reminder that booze just aint your thing

and bacon wrapped hotdogs have a time and a place

hi, my name is tony.

i am on vacation for 10 days. and i am at the beginning of a lil experiment.

last night at 6:30pm i turned off my phone and put it in ambers purse.

the goal was not to turn it back on until my mommas birthday a week from sunday.

but it only lasted an hour because i needed to call her to tell her i wasnt dead.

and also to fill her in on my plan.

somewhere along the line i also have chosen to cut my social media use down by a good 96%

im still the founder and co-moderator of the greatest Howard Stern Facebook group around

and i dont want to burden the other two moderators with my vacation, so i will be dipping back into that page a few times a day.

its been less than 24 hours and naturally at first i wanted to see what my FB page thought of my plan

a few people said something super dumb that normally i would have retorted

but thats all part of the problem.

for being such a laid back person, at my heart i am a bit of a controler, a secret alpha

and definitely an astrological cardinal sign

i feel more comfortable leading than following unless i have someone incredible to support

but if you say something stupid on my facebook wall, for example, i will school you

because obviously nobody else has.

ive noticed that i am spending more time reading the newspaper and reading reddit.

in fact ive already been guilded this week on reddit for something i found and thats nice.

whats not nice is i like wishing people happy birthday on facebook and i have no idea who im slighting

but i hope they understand.

cutting off the phone and social is not something im doing because

OMG ITS TAKING SO MUCH TIME AWAY FROM MY WIFE AND KIDS

or because its evil or spying on me or sucking away my creativity.

the web and social have put bread on my table, beautiful women in my life and given me most of my real life post-college friendships.

ive been able to work several Oscars, buy a Benz, and live a reasonable life.

if anyone loves it and knows it and enjoys the daily give n take of it all, it’s me.

but only until now have i been able to take a break, driver 8.

every other job had me tethered.

i once had a job where i was  forced to work seven days a week.

i even asked the HR director one day if it was legal. years and years with no real days off?

the response: you’re staff, and thats the nature of your gig.

which was baloney. but what can you do.

theres something about emotionally and mentally not having to worry about being responsible for shit for a few days.

where you can truly unplug.

it’s been about 22 hours. and already i have some good ideas bubbling that probably wouldnta been there.

im watching more tv, and by that i mean youtube.

and im focused when i watch because i dont have that “second screen” to distract me.

my attention span is returning.

but the only real issue is the air quality. i cant really go outside.

no one can.

the smoke and soot and smog and crud are everywhere.

i wanted to go to Palm Springs for a few days and not do shit by a pool

but even that oasis is closed.

fine.

maybe i’ll blog more often.