Is It WW3?, A Sleepless Night and Baking - My Gerbil Mind at Work Again - LOL

I'm operating on minimal sleep today, which is rare for me. I went to sleep a bit earlier than normal - I had enough of watching the war and the various pundits. I had enough of the human misery, the never-ending discussions and the intransigence of politicians. I had enough of Putin and Biden, Poland and Ukraine, and dreams of empire. I had ENOUGH. I went to sleep.

I'm sure some of the reason I couldn't sleep last night is 
my total belief that WW 3 has already started. DH has the 
TV on to MSNBC or CNBC all the time. He's not even 
watching the financial network (his usual "on all the time" 
TV station). I'm a bit overwhelmed by war and misery 
right now. 

There are some really interesting world maps out there 
to look at, I'm giving a couple of URLs for two 
different maps on Reddit. Both maps seem to say 
I'll never have an opportunity to visit Egypt. *sigh* 

I found this map first: 
https://i.redd.it/pri6kmvj6f561.png
Then, found this refinement
https://i.redd.it/ekqqamwcdus01.png

I awakened fully, after a restless hour of tossing, turning and just not getting comfortable, at around 12:30 am, giving up on sleep. I didn't want to actually get up - I still hoped to get a little bit of sleep. But I also wasn't getting anywhere at convincing my hamster brain to settle down. So I powered up a guided meditation instead. 

Astral projection has fascinated me since I was a child. I 
tried it numerous times, as I'm sure some of you did. But 
I was totally unsuccessful. I've been taking a class through 
Mind Valley on Astral Projection. I can't say it's any more 
successful, but I do find it relaxing, and if I have a chance 
to actually practice it seriously, it may be something I 
can do. It's a fun course, in any case. 

I've been working through a course on Astral Projection, which has been marvelous. So I cued up the next session and listened for the 20 minutes of the course, then entered into one of the two practicums offered for that chapter, each of which would take more than an hour. I totally lost myself in the practicum and was finally was able to relax and concentrate on something totally different than the war and misery happening on the other side of the world. When the practicum ended, I still had 45 minutes until my alarm was set to go off, so I grabbed that little bit of additional sleep. Still, it wasn't a good night and I'm going to be a bit of a Zombie today. 

I'm not at my best today - a lack of sleep will do that 
for me. I'll be a bit of a Zombie today - just going through 
the motions. Hopefully I won't be super busy today, 
DH is never as helpful with customers as Chickie is. 

Unfortunately, today is a Monday. That means I'm not working with Chickie, I'm working with DH. He'll be in the back room for most of the day doing the financial paperwork for the store, balancing the checkbook, and probably playing Bridge on his phone (it's what he likes to do, although he curses at the game for it's choices of cards all the time). Working with DH is never a relaxing experience, but I'm usually able to handle things fairly well, and I'm not shy about calling him out to help when necessary. 

I love watching baking and cooking shows. 
Tonight is this week's episode of Season 8 
of the Spring Baking Championship. I'm 
always amazed that the bakers can whip 
things together so quickly and have them 
look so amazing. 

Still, I'll be happy to close and lock the shop doors tonight. I've got the Spring Baking Championship show to watch tonight, (I dearly love watching cooking and baking shows, although I don't eat baked goods at all any more). I can relax, watching people go crazy over flour, sugar and flavors. There's no way I could possibly do what they do within the time-frames in which they must complete their challenges. Hopefully I'll get a full, uninterrupted night's sleep tonight since I swim tomorrow and I don't want to fight exhaustion on top of pushing my lap times. 

Sometimes that unexpected bit of kindness can pay 
amazing dividends. It costs nothing to be kind, 
and the payback is priceless. 

Have an excellent Monday. I hope your Spring is starting out well. I'm grateful that we have had some nice temperatures for a change. Today will be lovely (after the rain goes away), and we'll actually be above freezing for Tuesday and Thursday this week. That's awesome for March. I'll take it! Enjoy your day to the best of your ability. Do something unexpected and kind to help offset all of the negativity in the world right now. I'll be back tomorrow. Peace!