One of my stores is having a ridiculous amount of turnover in the pharmacy. All of the technicians have found better paying tech jobs in the metro area (enough said). Today we had four new kids in the store, one who is just here for a week to help out as he is just an intern on rotations, but three who have all been working a year or less.

I didn't want to scare them away with the BTD because there just wasn't enough time to explain what it's all about but I wanted to order them a pizza to help boost morale. Pizza Luce is a local pizza parlor chain w/delivery here in MPLS (and Duluth) (www.pizzaluce.com for more details). I brought up this place as a possible lunch option and one of the techs was in accordance with me that their baked potato pizza is the absolute bomb. So I decided to get the veggie version for everyone. Of course there are also tomatoes on top as if the potatoes aren't harsh enough on my system without Deflect anywhere near here. But you see, potatoes are comfort food for me and the last two days I've only had eight hours total sleep. That's another story all together.

Well, the pizza and caesar salad were fabulous but I doubt it will help me with the Iyengar yoga class I've started and will be attending in the next half hour. I want my joints to be happy and that probably won't be happening tonight when the sleep deprivation is combined with the lectin activity. Ugh.

Well, one of the reasons I didn't get a whole lot of sleep started on Friday evening. I had so much to do and was stressed out just running through the to-do list in my head. Nevertheless I tried to go to bed by 11 pm. Not happening. My next door neighbor had a party and it was getting louder by the minute. I figured, well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I was upstairs and yelled down at them, "hey, y'all having a party?" And they were like, "come on down!" It was some guy's birthday and they had all these kickball and softball team people there. A girl who used to live in my apt complex downtown who has the exact same birthday as me was there. She was exactly the same as I'd remembered her back then.

Well, then the next night, the neighbor one house down from the next door neighbor was having some band play in the garage and holding an alley party. I missed this as I had to work late, but joined up for the jam session from about 11 pm to 2:30 am and still had to work at 8 am the next morning! It was worth every minute of sleep I lost, however. I brought my guitar and drum (the same one I brought to the drum circle at IfHI!). It was such a blast! I found that I really love drumming when these baby boomer hippie guys are playing all their folksy 60s and 70s music when I don't know words or chords. Just providing the percussion is part of the fun. The neighbors next to this couple were also having a party which was even louder than us. I didn't realize I lived on such a happening block! I thought it was all families w/kids or elderly. With all this in mind, boy I love owning a house versus renting an apartment! The garden alone makes it all worthwhile!

The next night (last night) was very healing. I can't really get into it but a nice lite veggie side dish dinner on a patio at a Cuban restaurant Mojito, massages using the Young Living products while listening to baroque, and many hugs were the order of the evening. It ain't over till it's over. It's one of those moments when you realize that we all have immense power. We can either use it to love ourselves and each other or to destroy ourselves and each other through harsh thoughts, words, or actions. Embracing love seems to make more sense. It feels a hell of a lot better, too. Life's too short to be upset.