Thursday, December 24, 2009

Holidays are hard

My Christmas Family is small, almost as small as it can be.
(this is a couple days ago at our new favorite restaurant)



Myself, my mum, and 2 dogs.. one that is evil and one that is good (one is black and one is white... I identify more with one than the other and mum highly favors the opposite).

They're both sugary sweet and snuggly, whiny, bitey, spoiled rotten cuteness of joy. (the good one's breath smells terrible).


anyways, my mom and I made meatloaf, broccoli and cheese and stuff for christmas eve dinner. Something strange happened though, my mom jumped up to ... catch the weather report? ...it was weird.



then we made cookies, our holiday tradition.







mom bought me a bottle of vodka for christmas, other than that we skip the presents. Its sad I know but this is what we have decided. So we dont have to ... buy things for each other. Maybe because we always get it wrong. But isn't it fun to have something wrapped to tear open. She always goes back on her word and wraps something for me, and then I feel guilty because I didn't get her anything. But what the crap do you get your mom? She buys everything she wants the second she wants it. How sad... I'll just have to wait till my birthday.








Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Nothing says Christmas like...

Vodka Tonic and a splash of cranberry







And watching Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (with my mom)
I swear, we've seen it 20 times. It plays like a song I know by heart, all the sights and sounds flow as one. you should watch it too. Search for it on You Tube.

Comparative Animal Physiology... cartoons

(na... I'll be fine)

A couple summers ago, my best friend Melody and I were in a biology class together, it was called Comparative Animal Physiology. Everyone getting a biology has to take it, and they usually do so in the summer because its just one of those classes.



Thankfully, the professor that teaches it is very relaxed. A serious professional, and a weird individual as well. Just... kinda... not creepy... he's harmless... but...

"YOU have to take responsibility for learning the material... I can't make you learn biology any more than I can make my wife sleep with me..."

what?



Anyways, it was a long summer, but I had Melody.

This week my mother and I are sorting through everything we have stored in every closet in the house and purging. I am throwing away my notes from comparative animal physiology (a big step for me), but before I did I went through them all to salvage the cartoons. This one in particular...

It may not make sense to you, but this was the one that made me lose it. I was laughing so hard I had to not only leave the room, but apologize after the lecture for causing a disturbance. I showed the professor the cartoon in question because I was in fact paying attention, most of the notes go along with the lecture... they just embellish them.

For instance, one theme of animal evolution is Centralization and Cephalization... meaning, as animals get more advance, their sensory organs are centralized to the head... and eventually, we'll just have a long point on our faces for all senses:


This is of course... the teacher who will remain nameless.













Monday, December 21, 2009

Sewing Blog



I recently watched Julie & Julia... a total girl movie (I watched it with my mom). Its a double story line about Julia Child learning to cook and her 8 year journey to publishing her famous book before she began her revolutionary cooking show that changed the way "servantless" american woman cook. While a struggling journalist with a government/cubical job vows to cook her way through the whole Julia Child book in a year... and blog about it.

I was reluctant to watch this TLC movie, but my mother made me, and I actually quite enjoyed it.

I also got my taste for blogging back. I have never stopped reading my favorite blogs, but I have fallen off my blog. Mostly because the last month or so of touring has blurred into an endless stretch of difficult shows, hard floors and cold toes.


But I have something worth blogging about again! And... more time than I can handle. Chad left today for Athens to visit his grandparents and on to Pensacola for the holidays.

Without my 24 hour companion all I have is my sewing machine, my instruments, and the internet... (and my mother, but more on that later I'm sure).



This is my newest creation. I am without my core material interface. I ordered this very pricey material Online almost a month ago and the warehouse has messed up the order 2 times now. I am furious and demanded express shipping at a discount (5 days before christmas but this is my business we're talking about... I only have 30 days to sew!) And I make everything... everything out of this stuff.


Without my precious doublesidedfusableheavyweight interface I have had to make new projects that don't require them. Tote bags for example. Yesterday I made one with a flap. Which is the perfect pattern for macbook sleeves. Good thing too since I have an order for 2 of them.

(back side)
So these new puce green macbooks sleevey things have 1/2 of foam on each side. Velcro closure and of course my signature design of a zombie on the hill having an epiphany (can't get away from this design... but... do what you know right?



I think they will go for $30 (plus shipping).
Please email me to place an order.
reneeisazombie@gmail.com

see you tomorrow probably. thanks for keeping me company

Saturday, December 19, 2009

the drive home

please click this before reading:


remind me to tell you of terrible battle through the end of 2009: Our last 2 shows were cancelled so we turned the car about face and headed for home... but there was 18 inches of snow, 200 miles and 17 hours between us and our beds. We were literally at a dead stop in the blizzard, the car freezing over for 6 hours. We actually ate a can of sardines to stay alive. Then... our windshield wiper gave out... the ice was too much for it. Now with no visibility... trucks and cars flying off the road every few miles to be lodged in the snowdrifts til morning, all hotel rooms completely booked... and out of gas. We crawled towards knoxville. We had left Blacksburg Virginia at 1pm... and arrived home in Knoxville at 5am. It was... terrifying. But now vacation begins.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Ice and Snow

Its that magical time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, everyone is running around with their head cut-off, unhindered by school or work or buyers remorse. Everything is red and green and christmas carols assault you in every retail location from Department to Grocery stores.
(Indianapolis)

(i am the ice queen)


In Florida, (much like how it must be in Chilie), this time of year is always permeated by scenery of ... well... cold. And while it isn't quite a southern hemisphere summer in Florida... the temperature only dips to about 40... 35 minimum. Floridians have never really seen winter as it appears on Christmas cards.




And as scared as I was of venturing north at this time... knowing full well what we would find, we did it anyway. Our last tour of the year would take us to the mid-west... we packed more socks than anything else. I stayed in my Narnia issued full length coat nearly the whole time. And it was good. The cold didn't even bother us at its lowest... 18 in Omaha.


(yup... thats my man)


(secret attic hideaway in Omaha)

The novelty of snow hadn't even worn off by the time we reached our most northern point in Ames Iowa.



But a major blizzard was rolling across the US from the west... we drove away from it as it lick at our heels and iced the highway before us. Remind me to really wash my car when we get home... it's covered in salt.



The only time the cold became unbearable was (predictably) in Chicago. Where the temperature actually came above freezing. Large cotton balls of fluffy wet snow fell upon Chicago as we drove to our gig somewhere in the windy city. Fell and melted immediately upon contact with our faces, our guitars, our feet and the road. All was slush.


But a good show none the less.

We have since, completed the mid-west circuit:

Little Rock
Tulsa
Wichita
Lawrence (total bust in the name of Karaoke)
Omaha
Ames
Chicago
Indianapolis (see Chad on the marriage of the divine to the profane)
West Frankfort (with the exception of ourselves, one 20 year old boy... no one over the age of 17)
Lexington
Louisville

It was here in Louisville that alcohol got the better of us. Even if we hadn't gotten the dates mixed up for our last gig in Knoxville, we were too hung over to move much less rock.

For now we are finishing up the rounds, last night in Johnson City, tonight in Blacksburg, on to Greensboro and finally a small town near Roanoke.

And then...

Chad and I will part ways for a whole 30 days as we try to accomplish something
find someone
figure out what will come next in 2010

lots of blogging on the way dear friends. keep me company for a while.






Sunday, December 6, 2009

i remember

i remember... snow. i remember cold. i remember my mom always calling me in before i was ready. always hot chocolate.

i remember the wet when you got in. i remember charlotte that lived next door. we would play forever... if they hadn't called us in

but we were plenty warm running around out there in our snow suits.

plenty warm in 11 degrees.

and i remember snow
snow in your shoes, in your hair, in your eyes in your ears your socks your heart.
but you can never touch snow.
only water that has just recently been snow.
and that might be why we keep scooping it up in our gloved hands and throwing back into the wind. piling it up into mounds.

it will only stick when its just right.

otherwise its just powder to make tracks in. broadcast love notes into the sky upon.