affogato – Page 3 – The Diary of The Deranged Writer

XXXVI: The Nocturnal’s Struggle of Waking Up Early / Notes to Self XVI

If you have been following The Diary lately, you should know that I’ve been making gradual changes in my life. One of those changes is waking up early for work—ideally at 8:00am. I did just that on most workdays after ToyCon 2025, and there were times I even woke up at 6:00am. (That’s a feat for a nocturnal person like me, and even my family is shocked by the fact that I woke up before they did.)

Now it’s beyond the middle of August 2025, and I admit that I haven’t really been waking up as early as 8am lately… and that’s fine.

(Buckle up because this is going to be a long post.)

10-Minute Warning CLXXXIV

I’m still nowhere near my battle station, so what can I write here under 10 minutes?

Today, after running an errand, I dropped by an old workplace (my first this 2025). I visited the office a few times after resigning in 2019, and today’s visit is the most unforgettable one ever.

I can’t describe everything that happened during my visit here on this post; not yet. But during my visit (and I stayed until closing time), I learned that a few people remember me after all these years. My old boss even remembered a tiny yet important detail about me, which totally surprised me. I also found out that somehow, parts of me still live in the workplace. Because of that, I was overwhelmed with joy and I cried a bit, too. (I didn’t cry in front of them, of course; I don’t want people to see me cry.)

Maybe I will talk about it in detail soon. We’ll see. But today has proven that there are people who acknowledge me, and they inspire me to keep going.

Anyway, I still have a few minutes to spare, but I’m ending this post now. Let me enjoy an affogato tonight. See you in the next post!

Edits were made on July 31, 2025 at 5:48pm. I’m not supposed to edit a Minute Warning post after the time pressure, but I felt anxious after noticing many errors way too late. I had to make the edits to ease my anxiety.

10-Minute Warning CLXIX

So, what can I write here under 10 minutes?

I have a few posts lined up, but after a certain discouraging conversation about my mental health from yesterday (while I was trying a different version of my favorite affogato, mind you), I don’t feel like posting them for now. In fact, today, I feel too sad to write, exercise, or even work. (But I had to finish the latter because obviously it’s work.)

Will I be better or at least get over it by this weekend? I really don’t know. Good luck to me, perhaps.

Published on March 12, 2025 at 10:54pm. Minor edits were made at 10:57pm.