Heart of the Heart Land

I was in Fargo yesterday seeing clients. Since my Monday was full, I decided to drive in on Sunday night. There were not a lot of hotel choices so I stayed at this boutique hotel with only 17 rooms. It was very nice. If you ever make it to Fargo, stay at the Hotel Donaldson (HoDo). Very clean lines, modern art work. I later learn from my colleague that HoDo is the nicest hotel in North Dakota. Who knew.

Sorry for going off on a tangent. Anyway, when I arrived at 10:30pm, I knew that I was in the heart of the Midwest. There were no city amenities, i.e. parking lots with attendants or ramps that you could enter after dark, there were no restaurants open down town because it was a Sunday night, and right across the street was a women's clinic which people were holding signs outside protesting abortion. These people apparently guard the door of this clinic 24/7. I had a good view all night as my hotel room window directly faced the clinic. The protesters were quiet and calm so they were not a bother.

The ride up was also very eventful. I was scanning the radio stations constantly over my 4 hour drive and boy was it fun. I was telling Kong that I was in 80's heaven. There were a ton of heavy metal stations along with 80's power hits. I heard song's I hadn't heard in decades on normal stations like Love Bites by Def Leopard, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, Glory of Love by Peter Cetera, Toy Solider by Martika and the list goes on and on. The memories associated with each song, how I felt during the time period the song was popular...good times : )

It was just interesting. I guess even though I grew up in a small/mid size town, I forget how different life is. It's almost like a time warp back to the 90's. Not that it's bad, it's just different. Life is so much more innocent. The people are so much less intense, in a good way. I'm still taking it in and mulling over what all of these emotion means to me.

On a different note, another month of no cravings before you know who visits and I'm down to 166 1/2. Not sure how this can be as I went over 20 points last week and I ate fast food twice but I'll take what I can get. I'm still working out 4x a week. I got the results of my lab test for my insurance back and the results were phenomenal. All of the indicators of kidneys disease came back as being within range of normal kidney function. This is a miracle!!!!!!! Also, my cholesterol went down from 201 to 170. Whooa Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess being diligent about eating healthy, cutting out red meats, no yokes, no fried foods ad increase vegetables really is making a difference. It's been a lot of work but so worth it.