I am not afraid of messing with Texas....

Okay, so I am sitting in the little the gazebo at the hotel in Texas. It is currently 0644 in the a.m. and I am finally starting to feel a little tired. That is a good thing since the insomnia has started up again with a vengeance. My roommate is a very light sleeper so I have been spending my nights wandering aimlessly or hanging out in the lobby. Tonight I stumbled upon the fitness center and in an attempt to wear myself into exhaustion and hopefully sleep, I spent two hours just working out. I really need to join a gym. It has been ages since I have done any real exercise, and it felt great. I spent 20 minutes with the weight machine thingy, then 40 minutes on the treadmill and an hour on the life cycle. It is funny, after all that exercise I ran the fitness test on the life cycle and it says I am at "above average" fitness. I can maintain a good speed for the duration and my heart rate never seems to get out of target range. I am actually right in the dead center of target. So I guess that is good for a woman who by government health guidelines is about 50 pounds overweight, is closing rapidly in on her 37th birthday, smokes two packs a day, and never gets any real exercise. Maybe if I join a gym I can finally fall into the governments ideal weight class for my height. (Though personally I think if is get that small I will look like I need a cheeseburger!) The work trip has gone well, for the most part. I have become quite close to many of my co-workers. We have had a blast getting to know each other outside of work. I have picked up a few new Spanish words, and some of the bigots in Texas are beginning to wonder if I am not a Hispanic disguised as a white girl. I swear if one more person here says to me (and I quote) "It is nice to know someone from Iowa TALKS English.", I may just end up in jail! I finally responded to some of them stating that "Why yes, I do SPEAK English. So do my teammates. When you learn to speak English as well as they do, you might try speaking with them." I don't think the people in this plant are too pleased with me. I will say that not everyone has been rude like that I have met some wonderful people here. I will be staying on with a small group that will not be returning on Friday as was planned, but we will stay to work the weekend and return to Iowa on Monday. I have become quite comfortable with the machine I will be operating when we get back to our plant. I have also learned that I am in for two back to back raises. One for going up a grade by becoming an M-tek operator (that is the machine I will be running.), and one for being with the company for one year. Yeah for me! I am finally starting to feel a bit sleepy, so I think I will just share a few photos from my trip, and head to bed. UPDATE!!!! I was attempting to upload some pictures of my trip but every time I hit the finish button Internet explorer shuts down. I give up for now, will try again when I am wired in to the net instead of on the stupid hotel wi-fi system. That's all, goodnight! (Okay it is 0732, but it is time for me to attempt sleep so....)