May Day at the Artful Gourmet Bistro

The following piece appeared on the Jewish Times website last week. I'm posting it here as a reminder for the fundraiser we're hosting for the American Cancer Society at the Artful Gourmet Bistro on Tuesday, May 1. For reservations, call (410) 356-2606.


Surviving Cancer At 25

AlisaBS
Special to the Jewish Times

APRIL 20, 2007

It was as if I had lived an entire lifetime in the course of a year. I graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law, passed the bar exam and got engaged.

And then I was diagnosed with cancer.

Nothing stops you in your tracks quite like that.

First it was colon cancer. It was just days after I turned 25 and only one day after we found out the offer that my fiancé and I made on a house had been accepted.

The doctors wanted to operate as soon as possible. So on the day I was scheduled to be sworn in as an attorney, I instead found myself being prepped for surgery. I spent my Chanukah that year in the hospital, with bridal magazines and reruns of The Simpsons to get me through. Not allowed to eat for two weeks, latkes were but a dream that December.

While the cancer was thankfully removed, the doctors soon found another cause for concern. An MRI showed a mass on my left kidney, which later was found to be kidney cancer -- the same disease that took my grandmother's life when she was just 35.

Thanks to an incredibly supportive husband-to-be who spent many long nights next to me, attempting to sleep in the world's most uncomfortable hospital chair, as well as my caring family and amazing doctors, I made it through both surgeries successfully.

The road to recovery was a long one. It took several months before I could return to a normal diet and many more after that until I regained my strength. By the time the wedding rolled around in October of 2004, I was feeling much better and couldn't wait to partake in the midnight chocolate buffet on our honeymoon cruise.

But today, nearly three years later, there's nothing more invigorating than knowing I've beaten cancer. And except for an annual colonoscopy and a CT scan here and there, life is pretty much back to normal.

Somehow I became living proof that colon cancer doesn't just happen to people 50 and over. It's not always as easy as I had I but it is treatable and beatable when found early.

And while I pride myself on being unique, the truth is that every single day people are diagnosed with cancer and launch into the same paralyzing fear. Last year alone, nearly 1.4 million Americans heard the dreaded words "You have cancer."

Thankfully the number of cancer deaths is dropping. When caught early, cancer is treatable.

To that end, I've made it a priority to help build awareness of the importance early detection. For the second year in a row I am leading a team, aptly named the Semicolons, in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life of Owings Mills, taking place at Owings Mills High School on June 9-10. The event is an all-night fundraising walk, in which a member of each team must remain on the track at all times.

It makes for a long night but compared to what cancer patients have to go through everyday, it's not so bad.

To help us in our fundraising efforts, the owners of the Artful Gourmet Bistro in Owings Mills have graciously agreed to donate a percentage of the proceeds from all meals sold on Tuesday, May 1 to the American Cancer Society. We are hoping the community will turn out in full force that day to show their support for finding a cure, and get a really wonderful meal at the same time. You can stop by anytime between 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m., but we suggest making reservations for dinner at 410-356-2606.

I also personally recommend trying the Renaissance, a chicken breast sautéed in a Madeira wine sauce, covered in wilted spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella, or the Matisse, a tri-colored cheese tortellini in creamy tomato sauce, but I leave off the ham.

If you'd like more information on the Owings Mills Relay for Life, want to sign up, or would like to make a donation, please visit www.acsevents.org/relay/owingsmills.

Aunt Alisa and Uncle Rich

Well, I've finally become an aunt... no thanks to my brothers.

Aidan is the son of Rich's brother, Matt. (Not to be confused with my brother Matt. Rich's Matt is 6 foot something and ginormous. My Matt is scrawny.)

Aidan was born Tuesday, April 17 at 6:32 p.m., weighing in at 8 lbs. 3 1/2 oz. and measuring 21 inches long.

Here are some pictures from our first visit with Aidan at the hospital. Yep, he's a baby.

A sense of terror too familiar

Yesterday, as the details of the shooting death of 32 people at Virginia Tech began to unravel, I felt the same sense of shock and fear as any human being would.

But I also felt a strange feeling of déjà vu which instantly brought me back to the week almost 10 years ago when tragedy struck my tiny bucolic college community.

It was January 1998 at St. Mary's College of Maryland when we returned from winter break to learn that a group of students were attacked and raped during a study-abroad tour of Guatemala. This was my very first day as news editor of the college paper.

Obviously this isn't entirely analogous to the murders which took place yesterday --the St. Mary's campus, thankfully, wasn't a brutal crime scene -- but there are some real similarities.

I know what it's like to wake up one morning and see your dorm on CNN. I know what it's like to see a college campus overrun by media from around the world, all while you're still worried about the girl who lives down the hall.

I can tell you in no uncertain terms that it's insanely surreal to hear a helicopter circling over your dorm as you see and hear the same helicopter on a live national television broadcast.

I also know that the days, weeks, and months that lie ahead for Virgina Tech are going to be confusing. While united now, students will turn against one another when the discussions continues over who is to blame. Some students will embrace the comfort of media coverage that allows them to talk of the dead and injured while others with loathe the media circus created and get angry at anyone who dares to allow the tragedy to be commandeered for financial gain.

Eventually the media will leave. (At St. Mary's, we had Monica Lewinsky to thank for that.) But life at Virginia Tech will continue.

I am no longer in touch with any of the St. Mary's students from the Guatemala trip but I do think about them often. I hope they have been able to put the horrible memories behind them enough to live the amazing lives they deserve. That's something the Virginia Tech survivors will struggle with for the rest of their lives.

High school, a wedding, and menopause

It's been a full week now since the Hippodrome Theater announced its 2007-2008 season of shows so I've had enough time to mull it over and make some judgments.

Coming off an amazing lineup like this year which included crowd-pleasers like Wicked, I knew organizers would be hard-pressed to repeat such a success.

On my end, I'm happy enough. Here is the subscription lineup:

The Wedding Singer - Sept. 11-23, 2007
My Fair Lady - Nov. 6-18, 2007
Avenue Q - Dec. 11-18, 2007
Cirque Dreams - Jan. 22- Feb.3, 2008
High School Musical - Feb. 19- Mar. 2, 2008
Camelot - Mar. 25- Apr. 6, 2008
The Color Purple - Apr. 29- May 25, 2008

Personally, I'm absolutely thrilled about The Wedding Singer and Avenue Q. The former is the musical version of one of my favorite movies. We even had the first dance at our wedding to one of the songs. I didn't get a chance to see it during its short run on Broadway and I'm in love with the cast recording. Avenue Q is one of my all-time favorite shows. I'm so glad my family and friends will have an opportunity to see the show locally.

Now the rest of the shows? Well that's a different story. I'm okay with My Fair Lady which is a classic that I haven't yet seen, as well as The Color Purple, which I've heard good things about.

I'm far less enthused about Camelot. I can't quite explain why but I just lack any desire to see this show. It's probably fine but I can't get myself excited. Maybe I just got my fill of the Knights of the Roundtable with Spamalot.

Then there's Cirque Dreams. Rich and I actually saw this show in Atlantic City last year. They comp a lot of tickets for it. A take-off on Cirque De Soleil, the show is actually pretty entertaining but it belongs in a Vegas-like setting, not at the Hippodrome. If you do go, be careful about sitting on the left side near the front. There's a really creepy guy that stands there, covered in glitter, playing the violin. I don't think he blinks.

As for High School Musical, I have a secret confession to make. I really like it. Rich even took me to see High School Musical in Concert in D.C. a few months ago. HSM is this generation's Grease. Boy meets girl while on vacation and gosh, they wind up at the same school. Boy is seen as a tough guy while girl is the innocent/brainy type. Love blossoms. Spontaneous singing and dancing ensue. Groups that otherwise didn't get along are now "all in this together." The story is innocuous enough but the music is damn catchy. So if you can set aside the cheesiness and tween madness that accompanies the production, you might actually enjoy it.

In addition to the subscription series, there will also be two non-subscription shows: Hairspray (Oct. 16-21) and a six-month run of Menopause The Musical. I've already seen Hairspray three times so I doubt I'll go this time around. And as for Menopause, well I'll just avoid that like the plague that it is.

(Speaking of Menopause The Musical, is there anyone else that finds it highly annoying that the title doesn't contain a colon or em dash? I understand that menopause means no more periods but do you really have to abandon all punctuation? Sorry. It just really irritates me.)

So is this season perfect? Not quite. But there's enough there to keep me interested. Besides, I'm not about to give up our amazing seats. You can't get much better that Orchestra, row 3, on the aisle. We're perfectly positioned for quick runs to the bathroom.

Winner wanted: No skill required

Through absolutely no skill or effort of my own, I've somehow won my March Madness bracket, making me the lucky recipient of a whopping $67.50.

Scoring 94 out of a possible 120 points, I managed to finish a whole nine points ahead of my closest competitor, my husband's boss. Not bad for someone who plainly admits that I know nothing about college basketball or even basketball in general.

I've just never had much of an appreciation for the game itself. There's nothing about a bunch of 7-foot-tall men getting a ball through a hoop that impresses me. I think the game would be far more enjoyable if played by short people like me, midgets, or players who have to be on their knees at all times. That, or raise the hoop to 20 feet. That could be interesting.

I also believe that the entire game doesn't need to be more than two minutes long. In most basketball games, there are really only two minutes that make the difference. It might be early on in the game when one team goes ahead by 10 points. Or maybe it's the last two minutes of the game when one of the two teams who had been neck-and-neck throughout finally emerges victorious. Either way, think of all the time we could save.

And please, don't get me started on a game where breaking the rules (i.e. committing a foul) is a strategy that can actually benefit your team in the long run.

The only reason I participate in the whole March Madness bracket phenomenon is so that I'm not entirely bored for several weeks of the year. Oh, and I guess this year I get to add the benefit of financial gain and bragging rights.

I know a lot of people (especially my husband) will disagree with my take on the game, but guess what: I won and I have a blog. I get to gloat a bit. So there.

Wow, so much for embracing with my touchy-feely side last week.