therapist – 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 CLXXIV

All right. What can I share here in under 10 minutes?

Since Monday I have been trying to sleep and wake up early—for real, this time. I drink my nightly medicine a few hours before bedtime, I lessen my social media time before bedtime, and I try not to hit the snooze button when my phone’s and smartwatch’s alarms go off.

Is it working for me so far? Yes. Thankfully, yes, and I hope to continue this for a long time. I’m not getting any younger and I need good sleep. I quote my therapist, Dr. M, “Sleep is medicine.”

Anyway, I really should go to bed. Like I said, I’m trying to sleep and wake up early. And tomorrow is another busy day at work. (It has been super-busy for a few weeks already.)

30-Minute Warning XV

OK. What can I share here in under 30 minutes?

Let me recall what happened last weekend. Last Friday night, I had my weekly Jack and Coke and an Army Navy California Burger to kick off the weekend. This is why I’m fat. But whatever. My weekend kick-off makes me happy. But this time, I lessened the number of Jack and Cokes I drank – I drank 2 instead of 3. My therapist told me to slowly lessen the drinking instead of going cold turkey, so I did. As much as I want to gulp my favorite drink, I need to take care of my health.

How about last Saturday? Well, the day was all right. I paid some bills and I rested a lot. Thank goodness for the weekend. But the most note-worthy thing happened during the night: my younger brothers’ band joined a battle of the bands. As usual, I recorded their whole set, but I was screaming and cheering for them this time. Unfortunately, they lost, but what matters is they did their best. Better luck next time… and I will invite more people to cheer for the band. And hats off to the other bands – they also killed it and they deserve the cheers they got.

As for Sunday, I went to church and then I dropped by my favorite spot Satchmi. But before I went to my favorite cafe, I suddenly saw a friend that I had not seen in… a decade? Yeah! It was that long. But seeing my friend for a few seconds made my day – the 1st friend I interacted with in person this 2024. I love it when I see good friends suddenly and without planning it! After seeing my friend and having my weekly cafe drink, I joined my Mother and cousins in having some tasty ramen for dinner. My weekend ended on a lovely note!

Moving on to today, I feel great! What happened during the weekend gave me a lot of energy to do all the sudden workload for today. And working while listening to the Foo Fighters’ 10th studio album Medicine at Midnight – which was released 3 years ago today – motivated me even further. Thank you, my favorite band.

I started my week strong, and I hope to keep it up throughout the week and beyond!

And time’s up.