Chapter 5: Building a routine

Friday, March 9th, 1984

Jason's alarm clock woke me up while it was still dark outside. Instead of going back to sleep as was my habit during Take One, I sat up.

"Did you change your mind and decide to start running with me today instead of waiting until Monday?" Jason asked, hearing and seeing me move.

"Na, I'll wait until Monday to start running in the mornings," I replied, trying to shake the sleep out of my head.

After he left to go run, it occurred to me that Jason had often made similar offers in Take One He was particularly insistent the beginning of the year I turned fifteen, which was his last year living at our parents home before going off to college. Instead of casually dismissing of his offer this time around, or worse, making an "Se Deus quiser" (an expression that literally means God willing — however, often the truth is closer to "only if God forces me") type promise — which I remember doing only once before Jason stopped inviting me to join him on his run, I should follow through with the promise I made yesterday and confirmed a few of minutes ago.

I enjoyed the jogging class I took while in college as a part of my Physical Education requirements, but somehow I never got the self-discipline to do that on my own after that time. During my time in the Army, I also had a structured physical fitness program. Since that structure was imposed upon me I stopped exercising the day I started my terminal leave. I know Jason will not push me into doing anything I don't want to, but his encouragement might help me to get into the habit of working out on my own. I remember well the consequences of not doing so, since I was very out of shape on the eve of my fifty-fifth birthday. By starting a personal exercise program now, and staying with it, I should be in much better shape the next time I will be getting ready to turn fifty-five. Running with Jason is only a start, even though he was an athlete in college. In Take One, as a freshman Jason joined the track team as a walk on. Except for a race he finished next to last as a result of a twisted ankle, he always placed in the top three. More significantly, due to his performance, one of the alumni gave a sizeable donation to the Athletic department. Part of that donation was designated to provide a second athletic scholarship to the track and field team.

As I was thinking about taking care of my body better, the thought came to me that I was starting to develop a set of resolutions to take advantage of my mulligan in life. Some of those resolutions have already — subconsciously perhaps — incorporated into my new daily routine. Granted, it was much to early too tell how long I will be keeping this routine basically unchanged, with perhaps a few minor adjustments or, if all I have been doing has just been a reaction to my trip in time.

Having a routine is not necessarily bad, but, the one I was in before had become a rut. I had basically given up on being able to change to a healthier lifestyle, By that, I'm not just speaking about physically, but also emotionally and even mentally. In fact, several times, especially in the first decade after my divorce, my New Year's resolution has simply been "Survive until my body dies." Things were not as bad in recent years, but still I occasionally found myself having a good time for a while, but then have a reaction to that and choose to become unhappy. Getting sent back forty years definitely has shocked me out of my rut. Thinking back, I'm not sure if anything less than the mulligan I've been given could have done that.

The shock of waking up forty years in my past, once I decided it wasn't a dream, reopened my mind to the possibility of finding true love as well as being able to make positive changes in my life. It took me a while to realize what had actually happened since, several times in the couple of years, I'd woken up from a dream that started out with replay of Kris being introduced. From that common beginning, the dreams soon took different erotic routes.

In one dream, after Kris was introduced, the teacher — who looked suspiciously like my ex-wife at the time of our divorce — called me to the front of the classroom. She proceeded to ask that Kris and I undress in front of the class. Kris undressed with the moves of a stripper, while I stood still watching her. Seeing that I was making no moves to get undressed, the teacher, now wearing a open lab coat with a "Sex Professor" name tag and only a translucent bra and panties underneath, asked for volunteers to get me undressed. The ten girls who volunteered, had me completely naked before Kris had finished her strip tease. Once Kris was nude, the two of us were used as living models in what became a sex ed class. I was in the process of pounding Kris to the bed — which had mysteriously appeared in the front of the classroom — when I woke up.

I had a similar dream with Alessa being my partner for the live sex-ed demonstration. In another dream, everything was normal until after classes ended. Then, Kris, Alessa and I went to the house Kris was staying at this year. Kris suggested we all go swimming a bit, something that Alessa and I readily agreed to. After I had gotten undressed, but before I could put on my swimming trunks, the door to the pool room — where I had been sent to change — opened. Kris and Alessa were both just outside, in their wonderful looking birthday suits. "I changed my mind about swimming. Let's do something else that's even more fun," Kris said as she approached me for a kiss, as Alessa started licking on my dick. I woke up from that dream with Kris riding my face, Alessa riding on my cock, my left hand, along with Alessa's playing with Kris' tits and my right hand along with Kris's playing with Alessa's.

In still other dreams, one of them would ask for me to walk them home. There, I would get invited in, and soon find myself naked in bed with whichever one I had walked home with. I also would occasionally have other dreams with both of them. One thing in common with all those dreams is that I would inevitably wake up just before I came inside one of them. I occasionally would wake up from dreams with another girl as my partner. That rarely happened in comparison to how often I woke up from a dream with Kris, Alessa or both.

My reminiscing was interrupted when I heard the alarm in my sister's room going off. Grabbing my uniform, which I'd gotten together last night, I hurried into the bathroom. Once I was in the shower my thoughts returned to the changes I wanted to make. So far, I've been able to keep my routine basically the same as what I remembered from the one I had the first time I was fifteen. While there has been multiple changes, the majority have been small ones.

There have been three major changes though, all of them at least somewhat interrelated. Previously, I was mostly a loner, did not pay attention in class, and rarely — if ever — studied at home. In the past two days, Alessa and Kris have helped me with two of the things I wanted to change. I still have some difficulty paying attention in class, ironically, most of it due to them teasing me yesterday.

My decision to try being more sociable is what led me to invite Kris to join me for lunch the day I met her for the second time. I actually didn't really expect her to accept, but I felt that I had nothing to lose by testing the waters. Subconsciously, I probably was still thinking that I was in a dream at the time. It'd been the first time I'd asked a girl out in years — due in part to psychological problems I'd developed over the years as a result of my ex from hell and other issues.

The fact that my new routine seems to be much more enjoyable than the one I'd followed for many years, gave me hope that I would be able to continue it with some later changes to accommodate changes in my personal situation. These changes would be as a result of improvements instead of falling back to my old habits. Part of the reason I was stuck in that rut was guilty feelings about some of the mistakes I'd made in Take One. If I can avoid repeating those mistakes, then I should have less guilt.

My thoughts were again interrupted — this time by Lisa pounding on the bathroom door and speaking loudly enough for me to hear, "hurry up, you're not the only one who needs to use this bathroom this morning."

I finished rinsing off, got out of the shower, dried off, and hurriedly put on my underwear, pants and shirt. After exiting the bathroom, I poked my head in my sister's bedroom, and told Lisa I was done in the bathroom for now. Again in my bedroom, I combed my hair and put on my socks and shoes. While I was finishing getting ready, I saw one of the clocks and realized that I'd spent less than fifteen minutes in the shower.

Since I was ready for school, I decided to check up on the progress of breakfast. As I headed downstairs, I paused for a moment listening to Lisa sing in the shower. Since I was the first one ready, Mom drafted me into helping her fix breakfast. I let her believe that she taught me how to fix oatmeal — which actually was true but didn't happen until I was nearly seventeen in Take One. It was one of the handful of things I learned how to cook before leaving for college. I was a reasonable cook, but mostly self taught after my ex had left me.

At breakfast itself, things were a lot more relaxed than they had been yesterday, a fact Dad commented on as he was getting up to leave for work, "Sons, I'm not sure exactly what was going on between the two of you yesterday, but I'm glad that you seemed to work things out between yourselves. That shows a sign of maturity that many adults don't have."

At school, Kris and Alessa repeated some of their antics, but it was a little toned down from what they had done yesterday. Part of the reason they turned down their teasing is that I retaliated in kind between the first and second classes, then asked them how they would like to try to pay attention in class while I was doing that. After classes were over for the day, they joined my family for lunch for the third day in a row. Lunch today was a much better affair than yesterday's, even though we had fish which is way down on my list of favorite foods. Jason joined our sisters in teasing Kris, Alessa, and me in a friendly manner about various things. One of the subjects that I was teased about was the fact I didn't complain about having fish as I normally did when we didn't have company.

After lunch Jason went into our room and, after making sure I would not need anything in there, closed the door saying that he needed to study. That was the last Kris, Alessa and I saw of him until he offered them to get them a mid afternoon snack. He did not openly apologize for his actions yesterday, but I could tell that he was somewhat embarrassed about what had happened. Since Kris and Alessa appeared to not be concerned with his apologizing to them, I was not very concerned about that. Anyway, actions speak louder than words and his actions showed that he was over what had made him upset with me yesterday.