Week #8: Making cancer a family adventure

What to expect from Cancerpalooza?

Rock concerts: Trish is a rock ‘n roll chick. in San Francisco, her dilapidated Victorian group house (now worth millions) was called the rock n roll chick palace.

We have front(ish) row tickets to see some of her (and my) favorite bands: Cheap Trick, Green Day, Motley Crue, Slash, Faith No More, Lynard Skynard and several more.

And we’re getting as many rock stars to sign her boob with ‘Fuck You Cancer!’ So far we have Ozzy Ozbourne, and several other very likely, but still secret rock boobographs lined up.

Fine food:One of the things I brought to our marraige was an interest and love of fine food. Trish has deepened her appreciation for cuisine over the years, and this summer is being treated to the area’s top restaurants including Komi, The Source, Citronelle, The Oval Room, J&G and many others. As often as we can, we do the tasting menu because it’s elegant and exciting.

Dance: (and other entertainment): It’s not prime season for professional dance, but we have scheduled at least a dozen performances from classical ballet to rock musicals. My love of dance is something I would never have if it weren’t for Trish.

Fashion: Cancer, particularly breast cancer, affects a womans self image so negatively. And Trish has too look amazing when we go out.  So she’s is getting a new summer wardrobe including lots of new shoes.

I try to give her a small fashion gift every day, a shirt or a necklace.  She gets looks everywhere she goes, which is exactly what should happen to a beautiful young woman.

Family wackyness: As much as possible, we are doing goofy things as a family. We cut Trish’s hair in a mohawk. We’ll paint her boobs next week. And of course there will be rides, movies and miscellaneous mayhem.

101 Summer surprises

31) Kennedy Center Ballet with family: It was great.  An excellent end-of-school gift for our dance loving girls.

32) City Zen/Splice : City Zen is the restaurant of the Mandarin Oriental, a fantastic hotel in DC with amazing views, the best spa in the city and one of the top restaurants.  It’s biggest problem is it’s in the middle of nowhere.  But don’t let that stop you from going.  It’s worth it.

City Zen is known for the tasting menu, and our very competent server tells us this is one of the best menus in the past year.  We get beautiful vanilla-infused Trout roe from Steven Stallard on smoked salmon.  A later course includes a tiny piece of fois gras on butter infused lobster.

The desserts were innovative but comforting like a salty chocolate ganache with pretzel and strawberry gelatto with sweet creme fraiche and shortcake.  It’s probably the best meal we’ve eaten this summer – only The Source came close.

Splice is a slick,  horror/sci-fi flick wrapped around a gooey core of creepy, troubling sex and violence.  A scientist husband and wife team have a baby that’s been spliced with animal genes.  They raise the child in secrecy and pretend things are normal, but they aren’t.

The father tries to drown the mutant in infancy, but fails.  As a teenager, the alien-daughter turns on the mom, who in turn, brutally mutilates her. The mutilation provokes the teenage daughter to seduce and fuck dad.  She (the mutant) later turns into a grown man and rapes the mother before finally being murdered by the father.

Ok, yeah, it was over the top, a little. But, we liked it because we like that kind of shit.  The crowd, however, was clearly very uncomfortable with the plot and shifted, giggled and talked through every squirmy scene.

33)   Clothes cleaned and sorted every week: Part of my committment to keep the house well-kept is to take care of all the clothes too.  God where do all these clothes come from?

34)  American Buffalo/Sushi Taro: Sushi Taro is, by many palates, the best sushi in town.  They are the only one that offers a Kaiseki menu – a formulaic, traditional Japanese ‘tasting’ menu with great attention to detail.

It features very little sushi, and though it’s beautiful, few of the dishes taste ‘delicious’ to us. But it’s intellectually fun.

American Buffalo at Studio Theater is excellent.  Trish has seen only a few plays on a small stage and the acting is fantastic.  Mamet’s coarse language is fun. We leave energized.

35)   Military style: These sandals from Chloe go amazingly with this hoodie and some cute camouflage shorts.  Military styles are everywhere.   Happy Cancer Trish!

Related posts:

1. Week # 13: Does butter help kill cancer?
2. Week # 2: You’re going to wish you had cancer too!
3. Week #4: Mr. Rock Star, sign my boob! It has cancer!