My weekends have become pretty routine at this point. I am unsure as to whether or not I am happy or sad about this, but it is what it is. Here is the skinny: I can guarantee to wake up one morning hungover. Lately, it’s been both mornings. On Saturdays, I need to rise somewhat early, as I work a shift at the Catch Surf store in Laguna. So if I want to surf or get some sort of exercise before putting in the work, I kind of have to be on it. Fast forward through my shift and I tend to be pretty toasted.

I usually go to catch surf strapped: coffee, kombucha, and a decent packed lunch. This can get me through most of the days, but sometimes I am just smoked. No amount of snacks or coffee can give me the extra edge. Work usually goes by decently quick however, as I am friends with my coworkers and the people that trickle in and out of the store tend to be on the more friendly end of the spectrum. We wrap it up at 7 and typically by 7:15 slapping fives in the lot and peeling away, everyone heading south and me being the lone soldier northbound.

What happens next is a toss up. I’d say my group of friends and I are more on trend of going out Friday rather than Saturday, so if we are limiting it to one night of going out, I can cruise home and play some mellow jams or whatever I am vibing as of late. If it is the other way around and a night on the town is imminent, I usually am thinking if I need to pick up any supplies on the way home as the turnaround time is tight. Even when my morale is the lowest, I know one way to get amping and ease into the mindset of sending rather than sleeping: music.

I had given up using Soundcloud when they started making you listen to not one but TWO ads in between a certain number of plays. While I am a dual citizen of both Spotify and Apple Music (because of Sean Carter), I can’t see myself purchasing Soundcloud Go anytime soon. Not even the commercials about it that bombard me on the rare occasion I open the app can sell me on it. Some time ago, I really enjoyed making playlists for different occasions. Soundcloud has a lot of mixtape songs and unreleased music floating around, so you can find some awesome mixes and even stuff from artists not available on the traditional streaming platforms.

So where is this going? I decided to make a playlists on Soundcloud that mimics one of my Spotify ones. The Spotify playlist is the music I put on at 7:15 on a Saturday night to crank on the drive back home. This Soundcloud playlists would give me the same energy and excitement. So whether you are in my case and are leaving work or somewhere low on energy, or the energy is already flowing and you want to amplify it, hit play and let it run. I even added a cool photo of 1800 tequila as the main image and sequenced the songs in a nice order, so shuffle is not necessary. Press play!