Howie Mandel & Mustang night

As a cancer patient I NEED to laugh and unfortunately there never seems to be enough of the deep, laugh-til-you-cry laughter that is so healing. I tried to get tickets to Russell Peters but that sold out basically without any advertising! I could have bought a single ticket, but what fun is a comedy show without a friend to laugh with? Plus, I saw the “extra charges” for the Russell Peters show and was shocked at how high they were. I checked tickets for Howie Mandel after and the charges were nowhere near as exorbitant as Russell Peters’ show. I’d like to know why the charges are different for every act?! Makes no sense to me, but because of the price difference and the fact that I could get third row seats for Howie, I chose Howie! I’ve listened to Howie Mandel for years. I loved “Bobby” (wish he’d done MORE Bobby!!), the surgical glove over the head, and have always thought it would be great to see him live. I hadn’t heard his “helium balloon” voice before (brilliant!) until the show last night  ( Oct 19, 2009) at TCU Place here in Saskatoon.

It seemed like the entire show was Howie just basically winging it and being himself. Too bad the people who responded to his audience questions seemed to be on the slow side (except for the doctor who eventually answered Howie’s questions) and it didn’t make people of our city look particularly intelligent. I suppose that’s the point though right? As a comedian you get a banter going with your audience, you make fun of them and get some laughs. And, every night is totally DIFFERENT! You never know what anyone is going to say and therefore as an audience we see just how quick he is on his feet.

 I couldn’t help but wonder if these few dates were timed only to promote the new book that he has coming out. He took the opportunity to tell us he has a book coming out in November. Why else would he come and do these dates (our show wasn’t even close to a sell-out) if he was just playing in Las Vegas? He was likely playing to a full house in Vegas but I bet it was cheaper to buy a ticket to see him here

The thing I appreciate about Howie is that he isn’t afraid to admit he has some problems, the major one being that he is a germophobe. How does someone like that TRAVEL? As a cancer patient who has carried hand sanitizer with me everywhere I go for the last 9 years I wonder how in the world does he even get the gumption to get on a plane?! Maybe he  has a private jet that is sanitized to his explicit directions. I wonder what his ryder looks like for his backstage/show requirements?!

I think Howie Mandel may have some kind of connection to/with breast cancer. We contacted TCU Place and asked if we could come and sell tickets on the Novakoski Mustang. I didn’t realize until later that they have to then contact the tour manager and get permission. Word came back and it was YES! TCU Place was so helpful and set up a table for me inside so I would be comfortable. If I’m out in the cold my back will be sore for a week because of the cancer in my bones, so I was incredibly grateful that I would be able to be inside selling tickets. My friend Jeanine and I sold tickets as people were coming in and everyone was so generous and in a good mood…after all, we were getting ready to laugh so there was no shortage of joking around! So many wonderful and nice people from all over…as far as Lloydminster, Ontario and Regina (if you were at the show you KNOW there were people from Regina there!).  We sold over 500 dollars in tickets in less than an hour, and all that money will go directly to breast cancer research in Saskatchewan. And, of course someone from last night could win the Mustang when we give it away on Friday!

So, the reason I’m thinking that perhaps Howie Mandel has a connection to, or is a supporter of breast cancer research is that HE WAS WEARING A PINK WRISTBAND! It was one of the first things I noticed. He had a metal bracelet on his right wrist, the pink wristband on his left and 2 rings on his left hand (wedding ring & one on his thumb). I remember this crazy stuff because I spent so much time staring at the pink wristband to make sure that it was indeed pink!

Howie was just what I needed. Living with metastatic breast cancer is not a cake walk and I often realize that I REALLY need a good laugh. I got lots on Monday night with Howie. Thanks Howie for the laughs and thanks especially for letting us sell tickets on a car to raise money for breast cancer research.

ASCO Breast Cancer News

The 2009 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium was held in early October in San Francisco, and some news was recently released. Thanks to regular updates I get from the Young Survival Coalition I found out about this and can post the link for you to check out! Click on the link below (or copy and paste into your browser if it doesn’t work) and then click on the “next” button on the bottom right side of the page for the latest stories on topics such as: Younger Women with DCIS More Likely to Have Breast Cancer Return After Treatment, new methods of tumour analysis, and other advances in breast cancer. Click here for news from the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) 2009 Breast Cancer Symposium: http://www.cancer.net/patient/Publications+and+Resources/Cancer+Advances/News+for+Patients+from+ASCO+Symposia/Breast+Cancer+Advances%3A+News+for+Patients+from+the+2009+Breast+Cancer+Symposium

Fondue Feast

What a night! The Upstairs Fondue and Wine hosted “An Evening with Lisa Rendall”  October 14th to raise money for the C95 Radio Marathon for Breast Cancer Research.  We had so much fun and enjoyed incredible food….we had a full course fondue dinner (includes appetizer, cheese fondue, main course, & chocolate fondue!) and were stuffed by the end of the evening. The full course starts with a choice from a couple of salads and a couple of home-made soups (I had the mushroom…it was awesome!). Then came the “cheese fondue” with things to dip like bread, apple chunks, broccoli, cauliflower & mushrooms. The six people at our table chose Swiss, Bacon Cheddar, and the vegan option (which was very tasty and excellent!). Next we chose the HOT ROCK option for our main course. They heat granite slabs so they are about 350 degrees when they reach your table. You put butter on the slab, put on your meat and start cookin’. You choose from 2 different meats and 1 vegetable (per person). I had chicken and elk. Others had beef, shrimp, scallops & duck to name a few options. There were 5 or 6 different dips to dip your meat in after cooking it. We also grilled our veggies when we had room to squeeze them in (plus there were fully cooked potatoes on the plate!). And the BEST course (for a chocoholic like me) was the final one. We had FOUR different kinds of chocolate we chose at our table: peanut butter chocolate, raspberry white chocolate, milk chocolate, and Turtles! Dippers for this included strawberries, banana, pretzels, pineapple & rice krispie squares. Me and another Lisa practically licked the leftovers out of the chocolate bowls!! GIVE THIS RESTAURANT A TRY - YOU’LL LOVE IT! The Upstairs Fondue and Wine – Corner of 8th and Broadway or call 955-6118. They open at 5. Best to make reservations on weekends. A wonderful place to go if there’s 4 or 6 of you and then you get to try a lot of different things. And don’t be embarrassed to ask for a spoon to get the last of the chocolate out of the bowl - that’s what I did!

Holy crap I’m on the cover!

I was totally SHOCKED to learn that the Star Phoenix put me on the front page, above the fold (!!) of their special PINK edition of the paper today (Wed Oct 7, 2009). I was asked by the editor a couple of weeks ago to be a guest columnist and I told him about an article I wrote for Living Beyond Breast Cancer in the U.S.  It’s appearing now in their fall newsletter and on-line. I’ll paste the link in below. It’s so wacky how this all came about.

When I was initially talking to LBBC they said they wanted 550 words, so I sat down at the campsite one summer day with my laptop and just started writing. Then I did a word count and it was over 2,000 words!!! Needless to say there was a LOT of editing, then more editing…and even MORE editing to get it close to 550, and then the LBBC editor worked on it too.  So, when the SP contacted me about writing a column/article I told them about this thing I’d written and that I had a few different versions. He said they could not accommodate 2,000 words either but he’d like to see it. Turns out he really liked it and wanted it!! So…to make a long story short (literally) it has now been published in it’s long and short form!!! It was a neat experience. However, if I’d known they were going to put me on the cover I would have asked them to send over one of their photographers instead of supplying a photo On the other hand, I am really picky about photos of myself…so when you submit something yourself at least you know in advance what it will look like!

I may post the long version here in a few days. In the meantime here’s the link to the short version that’s in the LBBC fall newsletter:  http://www.lbbc.org/data/newsletter/LBBCfall09justformeabc.pdf

Remember to THINK BEFORE YOU PINK this month with all that pink ribbon stuff out there :) I DID cave and buy the pink toilet paper, but only because I had a 75 cents off coupon from the Run for the Cure, AND I had a 15% off coupon for my entire bill (from Extra Foods flyer that I used at Co-op!). It gives you a bit of a shock when you see the color the water turns in the toilet cuz you’re not used to it!! I think I’ll take it with me and give it away to people/businesses…..or maybe I’ll save it to paper someone’s house at Halloween

Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009 = crazy busy!

Hitting the road to sell tickets on the Novakoski Mustang!

I’m barely two days into breast cancer awareness month and I already feel like I’ve been going full-tilt for weeks. In the last several weeks I’ve been out trying to sell as many tickets as I can for the Novakoski Quality Collision raffle. We’re giving away a 2006 Ford Mustang convertible & raising money for the C95 Radio Marathon for Breast Cancer Research. Tickets are only 2 bucks and I just can’t understand why we have NEVER sold this out! We only have 20,000 tickets available, and I think it shouldn’t take that long to sell 20,000 tickets…but it does. This year I would REALLY love to sell this raffle out! It’s such a super hot car and I have loved every minute of cruising around in it, especially when we finally got some hot weather (in September!). It seemed like I had the top down (on the car) every day with the sun beating down on my face and the wind tossing my hair around. Before breast cancer I HATED getting my hair messed up. Maybe it’s because after losing your hair it feels AWESOME to have hair that the wind can blow through. So, I’ve been going wherever I can think of to try and sell tickets. I’ve sold a lot…but I’m exhausting myself because I have my fingers in quite a few pies right now.

Breast cancer awareness month tends to get pretty busy for me. There are so many events and requests for me to be here and there. I’ve learned over the past 9 years that I have to pace myself. I’m not invincible - much as I sometimes think I am Last week I did two speaking engagements, sold tickets at several different places, rocked out with Keith Urban, and was away for the weekend for one of the speaking engagements I had. To top it all off, several projects I got involved in earlier this year are now coming to fruition.

I did a film interview in Calgary in July for a couple of upcoming projects, and I wrote a column for Living Beyond Breast Cancer. The column is in the new fall 2009 newsletter for LBBC. When I was asked to write about some of my experiences living with metastatic breast cancer I came up with numerous ideas and agreed on one of them with the editor. 550 words was all I had to come up with, so I sat down one day while I was out camping and just typed out everything that flowed out of me. Then I did a word count and it totalled over 2,000 words!! Needless to say, I spent the rest of the afternoon “slashing and burning” (editing) to get the word count down without losing the important points of the story. I managed to get it to about 700 words and sent it to the editor for her opinion. She had some great advice and we got it to 550 words - ready to publish. I kept a couple different edits of the original draft, thinking I would post it here on my blog. That’s when the next opportunity came along…

The film interview I’d done in July had been edited and is being used for 2 different projects. One is a new website that just launched today called www.TellHER2.ca. The other is a documentary about women living with HER2+ breast cancer that will premiere at Rethink Breast Cancer’s Breastfest Film Festival in Toronto in November. I was asked to do media interviews for the website and quickly agreed. After all, it’s SO EASY for me Talking is much easier than organizing some kind of fundraiser…at least it is for me. I did my first interview about the website this morning with Kelly from a New Brunswick radio station and it was so much fun. I have a feeling there will be a lot more to come because it’s a great website and is long overdue for those of us affected by HER2+ breast cancer in Canada.

And of course something else got tossed into the mix! The editor of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix (our local newspaper) emailed and asked if I would be willing to be a guest columnist for a special edition of the paper that’s being published on October 7th. They are doing something similar to what the Winnipeg Free Press did in June of 2008 for the World Conference on Breast Cancer…the entire paper will be printed on pink paper and will be distributed to subscribers AND non-subscribers and it will also raise money for the Les & Irene Dube Centre of Care (Saskatoon’s Breast Health Centre). I told the editor about the column I’d written for LBBC and he asked to see my original draft as well as the shorter draft that LBBC published. Luckily he really liked my original draft and it’s being published in the October 7th PINK edition of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. After it’s been published in the SP I will post it here as well.

I’ve got lots of requests to speak and take part in other events that are coming up this month but haven’t given anyone a concrete answer yet. Gotta get through the CIBC Run for the Cure this weekend and  then I can slow down for a couple of days. I hope. Of course I decided to be the team captain for our C95 Radio Marathon team for the Run for the Cure so I’ve got a few things to do to get ready for that and tomorrow is the only day to do it. I can’t even think past Sunday and what’s coming up after that.

Obviously we have the C95 Radio Marathon coming up October 22 & 23 so there’s numerous things I’m doing for that, and I haven’t even mentioned that the garden is still full of all the veggies that have to be picked and brought in PDQ before frost hits….