Bring your Blogger to Work Day!!and

Didn't I tell you?

It's bring your Blogger to Work Day!!

Which is almost identical to bring your new camera and stealthily take pictures of everybody trying to work day!!

I work at Mellow Mushroom near the UT campus, I'm a hostess, which means I take to-go orders, fill the ice machine and seat people.

It isn't nearly as stressful being a server, but I don't get paid the big bucks either, and I may or may not be surrounded by ladies 4-6 years younger than me.

Every morning the servers have a pow-wow where they fill salt shakers, roll silverware and generally talk shit about other servers... (no of course not, all the servers are amazing, all the ones pictured here especially).

Here's the prep cook breaking it down, his name is Franklin... or as I like to refer to him: Fwankyn.

The lovely dishpit! Shown here all super shinny and not smelling like vomit as it always does at the end of the night. my how things turn over in restaurants.

This is where all the magic happens, the shinny wonderful kitchen, very warm in here.

This is Matt, he's a cook, today he's on hoagie patrol. He makes really good coffee inthe morning. He's also a fellow musician, and on a side note, he and his friends are putting on this festival next weekend:

Boombutywah 2010

But enough about them! lets talk about mee!!!

"Mellow Mushroom on Cumberland Avenue, this is Renee, how can i help you?"

I'll walk you through my most important task:

(yes... sigh... i do have a biology degree... it's the new High school diploma apparently)

Watch out for the "Leaning Tower of Cheesa!!" (Matt... I'm not nearly that witty or cheesy)

Thanks for tuning in, come and see me sometime, I'll be here:

And then 5-8 hours after that I'll be here:

Tomorrow I think I'll post some cartoons of Gary the Fish, don't miss it!

I'm back!!

And I'm happy.

why?

still in knoxville, my hometown is covered in oil, i am working a minimum wage job(s) with a degree in marine biology, i have little to no money...

all these things are trivial... except for the oil, i just try not to think about it.

I am happy because:

1. Look at this handsome man! He likes me...

2. I got a new camera! And its long overdue since our digitals keep biting the dust or just plain being crappy. How can you document/blog with no fancy digital toy?!

3. At least I haves a job

(no photo on file)

4. I cleaned up my office... or at least I'm cleaning up the office and making it into a proper studio.

What a Mess!!

Explosions of String and Eyeshadow and bits of Rubber!

The one stop dropping place for everyone as soon as they come in the house... they drop everything here... coffee cups, playdough, bits of ... nail polish... alright, its all mine its my shit.

After! with a clean desk we can create again!

5.And so... My creative things came back! Those things inside me that made me special, that I identified myself by, that brings me happiness... these things are back.

this is Gary the fish... stay tuned for his single panel comic strip coming soon!!

In the form of song and craft. I'm just crazy about eraser stamps.

this tree is for Nat, the dishwasher at my job... his last day is saturday. He is leaving to become a park ranger. go nat!!

this is the first one i did...

okay bye guys! I have lots and lots of stuff to share

A Trip: to the Library

i just had to share

April Showers...

... and other generalizations about months.

Knoxville, a place i never thought of, there are lots of those i suppose. more than you'd think.

Knoxville, is where we live.

Pensacola still feels like home.

Our house is just south of downtown

the smokey mountains is south of that.

we made music

we make it still

having some trouble finishing the album,

but I never really heard of an album that was easily done

not any good ones anyways

it'll be finished eventually

(ps... this is my mom's house... i dont have a portrait of myself in my music room or anything... sheesh)

i can't wait to hear it

Chad's album is just about done,

mastering puts on the final touches and the high gloss top coat to seal the cracks

it sounds wonderful

time for a snack

i am the biggest loser:

of Weight that is!!!

long story short:

*(omitting a life long exposure to american society that has molded me into a self conscience being while simultaneously brain washed me with every advertising media to be overindulgent in every aspect of life... especially food)

**(omitting self-pitiful childhood memories of always ALWAYS being a bit "chubby", long after I knew that the term baby fat was no longer applicable... which realistically people, is like 3 years old... not 14)

" THE BATHING SUIT INCIDENT"

or more aptly named:

" THE BATHING SUIT STRETCHED AROUND THE WORLD" (that started a revolution ...ary war)

i went to target to buy this turquoise bathing suit I had seen. oh it was super sexy in all the right places but not in all the wrong places if you get my mean. After a couple months of hiking and eating much better, I felt like it was time... I would go through the mortifying ordeal that every woman must face when she needs a new bathing suit.

you can see it here: http://www.target.com/Xhilaration-Juniors-Polka-Tankini-Swim/dp/B0033B0FQC

I neglected to recall at that moment in the way too well lit dressing room the amount of red wine, bleached pasta and bread products and ice cream that had accompanied all that hiking and healthy food in the past 2 months. poo

so... instead of a bathing suit... i went to the back of the store and ... contributed to a multi-million dollar enterprise built on the desperate hopes and desires of the plump...

i bought a biggest loser book.

but i really like it!

seriously, i thought i was eating pretty well and exercising enough.

chad is being super supportive... we're both pretty into it.

i never realized how much crap i sneak into my body.

Breakfast: Ham and Cheese Melt

fried egg (made in a ring so its all pretty and perfect... the top of a canning jar lid)

and use cooking spray instead of olive oil/butter/canola oil... /bacon fat (which we do on a regular occasion)

WHOLE WHEAT english muffin... its so moist, it doens't even need the extra 50-100 calories of butter i couldn't resist

some low fat cheese... or whatever you have laying around... say... smoked gouda... ah!

and 2 slices of lean ham

egg = 90

muffin = 120.... 160 with the butter

cheese = 100

ham = 30

________________________

370... not so diet. but so delicious.

stay posted if this interests you in the slightest

since then

we are still in knoxville

my mom broke her arms... i told you that already... but they are not broken anymore, the casts are off. but we are still in knoxville.

Chad got a job, he starts on thrusday

we will not be here forever.

we will move to Pensacola in the summer and I will start classes to become a teacher of high school biology.

we will hold these more professional grown-up type jobs in the pursuit of putting out our next album on 7 ''.

We will be recording the album in april when my mom goes to california.

i miss my friends most of all.

to see what we have been going since then... please see chad's blog, he updates it regularly with pictures of the hikes we do everyother day in the smoky moutains.

love

renee

Chad's Blog

didnt see that one coming

you never do do you?

and then... from the heights of the ladder where you were slipping into a youtube coma, trying to decide what crappy job you wanted for the next several months, how to go back to school, how to deal with a new life... you meet the concrete... with your face.

actually in this case, my mom met the concrete... with her face... and arms. I think this is probably my number one worst nightmare of all time, is my mom being terribly injured. funny thing, I was sleeping when it happened and awoke to some terrible commotion... I wont go into details, but it was defiantly the worst nightmare ever... funny, it didn't feel like a nightmare... it just felt... urgent. again... details being spared... mostly because I really dont feel like revisiting them myself. I've already told this story to about a million friends and relatives.... its getting really old.

but anyways, she broke her elbow and her wrist... not the same elbow and wrist... but one from each arm... making her completely immobile and useless to do anything except swallow pills and food. which is all she is expected to do for the next 3 months.

3 months!!!!

of course, if this was just about my mom's life... it would be on her blog... (the thought that she would have one is laughable).

this is my blog.

and my new life. well... my new temporary life. at least I dont have to bother with all those pesky "what am I going to do with my life" decisions... not now anyways. right now I'm primarily concerned with getting those pain pills into my mom's mouth.

she can do a lot more than just that of course, she can walk and turn off light switches and give directions... (albeit loopy, but we managed to pay the bills today). usually my mom talks really well... too well, she talks and talks and talks and talks ... its off the chain, its too much. it makes some social situations impossible. but now... she talks much less, mostly because her face hurt these last few days (thank god the arms broke and not the face... or neck). when you talk less, you listen more. which makes you an exponentially better conversationalist.

since my mom broke her arms on monday we have had 2 conversations we NEVER would have had otherwise, breeching some ground I never would have touched in the real world when i slept til 2 or 3... or 4 and stayed up watching youtube, wasting my life until I had to do something with it. I was just about to start recording an album and get a job and move back to pensacola (like... I was supposed to move tomorrow) when this happened.

I was really really overwhelmed with self pity for a day.

it didn't change anything, and it sure didn't help.

its only been 3 days, but its already getting easier.

and tomorrow instead of moving to pensacola with all these mother daughter issues growing more and more tense through the years, I will be taking her to surgery tomorrow.

we now spend 24 hours a day together, (besides the 4 hour increments I get to sleep).

and its alright.

I'm very calm about what I have to do, what I need to do, my role for the next 3 months.

its really far away from being a touring musician, and in a lot of ways its much easier.

I really dont mind doing the things I need to do, and I spend all day doing things I need to do, for my mom, for myself, for the house, for the dogs... and then I fall into bed. (for 4 hours).

this is what the next 3 months will be like.

jesus,

I'm scared of what I'm going to learn and how much I'm going to grow up.

I'm sure you'll hear all about it.