The New Bed Towers

Friday was a much-needed day off. For the first time in five days, I didn't cry. I had a wonderful day.

I started out with a full-body workout. I did 2 Cindy Whitmarsh workouts on Exercise TV: one for lower body and one for upper body. I was done in 30 minutes.

I did some homework after that, and then I got my hair colored and trimmed, since I am premature grayer. Hooray! I went to a new place, and my hair has never been so soft and de-frizzed in my entire life. I may have left with a bunch of new hair products....

After that, I quickly got ready for a dinner event at my dad's hospital. They just built some innovative new bed towers, and Friday night was the unveiling. I went as Patti's date, a coworker of my dad's, because her husband was out of town. 

When we got there, we went on a tour of the new bed towers. They are unbelievable! They look more like hotel rooms than hospitals. Everybody kept saying that nobody will ever want to check out!

There were some very smart ideas that went into the new towers. This below, for example, is a new nurses' station. Instead of having all the nurses gathered together in the middle of the floor and making a lot of noise, one nurse now sits in between two patients' rooms. They have all of their information on their computer, and they can press a button on either side to check on the patients. The glass that looks opaque on either side becomes transparent, and the nurse can see into the room. 

Another nice feature is that the chairs are attached to the desk. The nurses get very frustrated when people take their chairs away and don't put them back, so now that's not an issue. The chairs are also ergonomically designed so that they are comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. 

I was also blown away by the artwork. The construction executives in the hospital went to many locations around the world to find artists. 

We somehow lost our tour group, by my dad luckily knew a lot about the new towers. He showed me and my mom around for a bit longer. Here are some of the other unique features:

• The rooms and doors are designed so that you can never see a patient in their bed while you walk down the hallway. This ensures privacy for the patient.
• All rooms have couches that turn into foldout beds for family members
• Family members have their own TVs in their rooms
• Every floor has a different "theme" so that it's more difficult for people to confuse
• The nurses and doctors keep all of the patients' medicine in locked drawers by their bedside. The nurse only has to swipe his or her card to open it if the patient needs medicine instantly. It eliminates the need to run to another location on the floor. 
• All walkers in the room are red so that they can't be confused with a patient's personal walker. 

After the "tour", we went back to the lobby for passed hors d'oeuvres and drinks. 

Here is my date Patti!

We all chitchatted for a while, and then we walked outside and into a gigantic tent in the parking lot. It was a very nice tent. Other than being a bit drafty, I felt like I was in any old building. The port a potties were also the nicest ones I have ever been in in my life. They looked like luxury bathrooms. They even had bathroom attendants! I was speechless.

The lighting was very, very bad. I still managed to take pictures of my food. We started out with an Heirloom Tomato Salad with buffalo mozzarella, mixed greens and balsamic reduction. We also had brioche, millet and caramelized onion dinner rolls at our table. 

We got our balsamic reduction in a shot glass!

The centerpieces were very fitting. I wanted to steal one for myself, but then I learned that they are getting donated to disadvantaged children. 

The Menu

The dinner was astonishing. Unless people requested a vegetarian meal, everybody got beef tenderloin with potato croquette, a baby vegetable bundle and demi glace AND Chilean Sea Bass with Forbidden Black Rice, enoki mushrooms and semame soy. Everything was crazy good. I especially loved the Forbidden Black Rice. 

After listening to a few speeches, we were allowed to access the dessert table! Patti and I waited in line for almost 15 minutes, but I think it was worth it. My mom tried to convince me to go to Dairy Queen with her instead, but I opted for this!

I got a mini banana cream pie, a chocolate blob (the cookie), Door County Cherry White Chocolate Chip Cookies and a chocolate cheesecake skillet. 

I loved all the mini-ness. It's so much fun to eat cute little things. 

I'm currently at my brother Jon's place in Chicago (WITH LIBBY) working away on my homework while Jon is enjoying beers at the pool. I know it's not fair, but I only have FIVE MORE WEEKS TO GO!!!

I also spent the day and night yesterday celebrating my birthday with my friends. Stay tuned for a recap!