Musings, Jokes, and Dreams to Wake Me Up 2

I have a certain routine that I like to keep, but that hinges on me waking up within a certain timeframe. I like to be up and getting ready between 7:30 A.M. and 8:30 A.M. Sometimes, I don’t wake up within that timeframe and it winds up being afterwards, but it isn’t as if I can’t still do many of the things that I want to do throughout the day. But everything gets pushed back, or I often wind up with less time for certain things, etc. I don’t NEED to be up this early and I CAN wake up an hour later, but when I do it too often, my other projects get less time.

I go into detail about the long explanation here:

The short version of the story, I have to create something that I NEED to do each morning. So, this is the solution. I am starting my routine, taking a quick one or two minutes to write any musings, jokes, or dreams on my mind, timestamping myself, and then going on with my day. At the beginning of each week, I’ll post last week’s thoughts… with timestamps. There is no hiding from my successes and failures. I’d prefer to be succeeding more often.

8/17/26 8:26 A.M.

I don’t remember any dreams from last night. They say you have dreams every night, but it’s just a matter of whether you remember them or not. I suppose if I don’t remember them, then they must not have been very good.

It’s probably a lot like movies. If you’ve ever watched a movie and then a year or two later someone asks you about it, and you can’t remember the details, then it wasn’t so great. A movie like that couldn’t possibly get higher than a 50% grade if you were reviewing it. I guess what I’m saying is, if you asked me for my reviews on my dreams from last night, I’d give them all a 4 out of 10 stars.

8/18/26 8:19 A.M.

I vividly remember a dream that I had in which I was in high school again and I was supposed to be getting myself to the championship basketball game and I was late! And late for no good reason other than just time mismanagement. 

You ever have a dream in which you’re so annoyed, that even after you wake up and determine it was a dream… you’re STILL annoyed, and trying to fix it in your head? Like, “I just need to be more mindful of the time in the future. I need to be responsible and take things seriously.” I did that for about 10 minutes before I could fall back asleep.

(Obviously someone has issues with himself for being late for things.)

8/19/26 8:27 A.M.

I remember having many different dreams last night, but all I can recall are bits and pieces and images. So, that doesn’t count. Instead, I’d like to talk about something important, something plaguing the country.

People who drive too slow in parking lots.

I got stuck behind someone yesterday who was driving so slow, I checked my own car to make sure I wasn’t in reverse. You’re not supposed to speed in parking lots, of course, and you go slower out of precaution, but there’s still such a thing as too slow. And this person, like me, was looking for a spot to park in. We had just entered the parking garage at the same time, and it was not a big parking garage. If there was a spot, we’d see it. I don’t understand why someone is driving two miles per hour. We can go 10, and you’ll still see a spot when it approaches. These spots aren’t sneaking up on us.

It was also a busy time of day, and it’s expected there won’t be spots until we get up to the higher levels of the structure, but this person was carting along, thinking they’d find a rare spot on the bottom floors. Why do people always think they will magically find a spot where there won’t be one? Like they have a gift, like if they drive slow enough they’ll catch it. Trust me, they’re all taken down here, as is plainly obvious. Let’s drive a normal speed, and when you see a spot you can slow down and take it… BUT WE WONT SEE A SPOT DOWN HERE! I arrived early to the place and was almost late to my appointment because of this person. THAT’S how slow they were driving. My message to people: trust yourself, you’ll see the spot when you approach it. You don’t need to drive at a crawling speed. Also, trust ME, you won’t find great spots just because you want to. If it’s a busy time of day, expect you need to drive a good deal and your spot won’t be close. And you’ll live. 97% of our lives, we don’t get a good parking spot. Believe it. Act accordingly. 

Glad I got that off my chest.

8/20/26 8:16 A.M.

I have to go get blood drawn this morning, so I had to fast for 12 hours. Luckily, about 7 of those hours wound up being while I was asleep, so it didn’t turn out to be too difficult. But with all the advancements we have made in civilization, we can’t make an advancement there? We can’t figure out a way for people to only have to fast 4 hours or something? I mean, 12 hours? That’s torture!

For a constant snacker, even if you sleep for 8 of those hours you still have 4 waking hours where you are expressly forbidden from eating anything, and oh, how you want to eat something so badly in those hours. The things I’ll endure to find out about my Vitamin D levels. I’ll ask them for my medal of courage while I’m there, but we’ll see if they wind up just sending it in the mail.

8/21/26 7:52 A.M.

I validated my parking slip the other day, and then I scanned it at the machine before returning to my car, and it said my parking would be free as long as I left before a specific time. I checked the time, I had six minutes. There was a little flutter in my heart from the anxiety of, “Can I make it out in time?” Luckily, my car was nearby and so was the exit, but why do they have to make these things like a Mission Impossible plot with the ticking clock.

I got in my car and drove to the exit and there was a woman at the machine there, only she hadn’t paid at the machine before returning to her car, LIKE THEY SUGGEST, and she was trying to pay at the machine at the exit. And of course, SHE WAS HAVING TROUBLE. And my clock WAS TICKING.

No, lady, this is why you pay beforehand! So you don’t clog up the exit trying to figure out how to pay while holding everyone up… and holding me up on my expiring clock. Oh, it turned into Mission Impossible all over again, only there was nothing I could do. The intense, familiar music played on in my head while this lady hung out of her window trying to determine which end of the car was supposed to go into the machine. I made it out with two minutes to spare, and considered changing out of my sweaty shirt when I got home. 

8/22/26 8:28 A.M.

You know what’s a horrible idea? Asking others’ opinions on how to live your own life? You know what’s a horrible waste of time? Reading an example of this on social media and then going through everyone’s comments.

You can easily get sucked into one of those. I almost got sucked too far into one but snapped out of it after just a couple minutes, like a social-media-guardian-angel was on my shoulder with a guiding hand to SMACK ME IN THE FACE AND TELL ME TO WAKE UP. What a nice angel. 

8/23/26 8:25 A.M.

This has been working pretty well! I’ve been doing much better waking up earlier, and hey, even on a Sunday! 

I’ll keep doing it, but maybe I can just post every two weeks as opposed to every week. Every week… no one needs that. I mean, no one needs every two weeks either, it’s just me who thinks that I need any of this.

So.

Every two weeks it is.