Enjoy your brains out. Part I.

Now that I am unemployed, I not only have time again to blog but I have time to blog about things that happened months ago. Nothing like a little dose of better late than never. 

sometimes when you graduate you get to be with this awesome wife

and you get a big pan of pad thai

and you get to do this with your arms

and you get to hike the Y in your cap and gown

and you get to speak at graduation and show off your pretty pictures

and you get to see lots of friends who should move to New York City

Mr. Sandman is actually Mrs. Sandman

We finally made our first summer 2009 trek to the beach this past Saturday. Give it up for the Atlantic Ocean! We drove with my cousin and cousin-husband Scarlett & Chris Lindsay to a beautiful place called Fire Island, about 1.5 hours away from our casa in Brooklyn. Why do I love the beach so? Perhaps I am half mermaid, half human. Oh wait, is a mermaid already calculated to be half human? I'm not sure, I'll have to check Wikipedia for that one. Nonetheless, happy beach time, my friends. August is here. If I didn't have a personal requirement to live in a house with indoor plumbing, I would seriously consider living full-time on a sandy beach on one of the coasts. Me and the Merms. And the Mons.

This was an interesting sight... 

And her other sleepy friend...

Awesome. Not awesome.

The other day something really awesome happened: we saw these guys. LIVE and on fire. And did I mention Free.99. 

For those of you who don't recognize these fine looking lads, let me remind you who Daryl Hall and John Oates are. They are the NUMBER-ONE SELLING DUO in music history. NUMBER 1, PEOPLE, NUMBER UNO!!!!! I love these guys. I was raised on their music. Thank you Mom & Dad for having such good taste in 1983. Hall & Oates have so many ultra amazing songs, I want to pee m'britches over it. "Rich Girl", "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", "Out of Touch", "Sara Smile", "One on One", "You Make My Dreams", and "Say It Isn't So". 

SAY IT ISN'T SO is right, whoop whoop! 

So you can imagine my sheer excitement when Aaron called to say he would be home from 

work early to see this free concert in Coney Island. We got there with just enough time to bust our way onto the grass next to the Old Lady Smoke Stack and the Really Cool Black People getting their Hall & Oates groove on (there is something so intriguing about watching black people dance, especially when it's to super mellow cheesy 80's hits). 

To be honest, the concert was pretty dang boring except for when they sang their hits, which at that point, the crowd would go wild and everyone would sing along. (Isn't this the case at most concerts?) I was actually starting to get upset by the end because they never sang Rich Girl which is my favorite song of theirs, so after they finished, me and the Mons started walking away. Until the encore started and I suddenly heard through the nighttime heat waves the intro to RICH GIRL!!! Ooh baby, I wasn't mad anymore. We ran back so I could belt my little heart out ... You're a rich girl and you've gone too far cause you know it don't matter anyway, You can rely on the old man's money You can rely on the old man's money, It's a bitch girl but it's gone too far cause you know it don't matter anyway, Say money but it won't get you too far, Get you too far-r-r-r-r-r-r......

Oh joy. 

In other news, the same day I dealt with this little gem.

A $130 cell phone violation from the grand ol State of New York. Yes that's right, I got a ticket for talking on my cell phone in a moving vehicle except 

1) I was not talking on my cell phone 

2) the vehicle was barely moving (honestly) 

3) I don't even have a freaking car here in the first place 

4) I think it's really unfair and really rude for the police officer to not understand my simple plea that I didn't know it was a law in New York, it's not a law in Utah, I just moved here, this is my first time driving a car, and I was only telling someone I was on my way to pick her up and I wasn't having a conversation and I was at a red stop light anyway and ... 

Unfortunately I'm not a rich girl who can rely on her old man's money.

Do you know what the officer said to me? "Welcome to New York." 

You know what I say?

Hall & Oates, you are never rude and you always understand what I'm feeling and I appreciate your 1980's haircuts and weird rocker clothing you were wearing the night of August 6. Thank you for helping me relive my childhood memories last week. You're the bomb.

Summer. 2009.

Why hello there old friends, it's been awhile. Yes we moved to New York City and yes Aaron has a design job and yes Carrie is now a bonafied housewife and yes Carrie is dying of heat stroke inside their apartment and no they do not have air conditioning (or dishwasher or laundry facilities) and no they cannot afford to buy these items and yes they still love their brownstone in spite of this and yes they greatly enjoy homemade Italian icees on every corner and yes their ward is awesome and yes they hope to have a baby (but only after Carrie is off Methotrexate sometime next year) and no they don't have a savings account anymore because Carrie spent it all on new home decor and furnishings and yes Aaron is always working and yes Carrie rides her bike to the public pool 3 times a week to hang out with all the black kids who are hilarious and yes Carrie tries out new recipes every day and no Carrie does not miss Utah and no Carrie has not found a job yet (but she is looking) and yes Aaron is teaching early morning Seminary this school year and yes Aaron has really cool design clothes and no Aaron has not biked every street in Manhattan yet (but he's working on it) and yes we invite you to come visit us but you will have to help pay our daily rent of $69/day (sorry).

oh lovely Carroll Gardens, thanks for letting us live here

mmm peanut butter icees

it's possible I will get a disease from here this summer

my indoor garden

home projects on our patio, aka the fire escape

momma Wendy came to town

HOTT

riding to Prospect Park with the Philadelphia Monsons

news for today

Hi friends. I'm coming back to the blog world. In very slow stages. Remember how we just moved across the country? So cut me some slack. I've been a very busy girl. But for today's enjoyment, please see how beautiful my BFF Ali is. She got married yesterday in the St. George temple and I flew in to see the whole shabang. She is beautiful and it has been a wonderous weekend. Ali, I love you and wish I could be on the cruise with you right now, except, not really.

Also while in St. George, I had the privilege to see this piece of work. More like, pieces of work. I about died every time we drove past this house. My friends say a man named Cactus Bob lives here and if I had had the honor of meeting him this weekend, I would have told him he has done a fine job of putting a bunch of weird crap in his front yard. Kudos to you, CB!!!

More blogging to come. I promise.

93 what

Today is my Grandpa Miller's 93rd birthday. Holy crap who lives to be this old anymore? Rather, who lives to be this old and still rides horses, goes for mile long walks, builds rock walls for Aunt Cynthia, and arm wrestles granddaughters? Clyde Miller, that's who. He's crazy. But I love him. Last weekend I saw him while on a trip to San Diego. We had dinner at Rubios Fish Tacos and after dinner he said out of nowhere, "Let's arm wrestle." The shock of this request nearly gave me a heart attack and I am only 30 years old. I was laughing so hard, I lost all my strength. Not like I had a chance anyway because this old man is freaking strong. He took me down without a fight. Hilarious. Grandpa, I hope in 63 years I can kick my granddaughter's ass. Bday wishes to you today!

For all you lovers out there who are on a budget like we are.

Vday 2009. Awesome.

Hanging out with Tim in San Fran. Radical.

Freezing at Ocean Beach. Amazing.

Cable car getaways. Incredible.

The Monsons are having a good start to their 2009 Year of Potential. Except for the $4,000 they owe to the United States government. Whooops!

Note to self

For the last 3 weeks there has been a horrific foul smell in our car. It smells like nail polish remover mixed with window cleaner mixed with poo. Every time we get in the car, we either get high or want to barf (sometimes both). I haven't had time to really investigate the smell until today. After 20 minutes of searching, I found the culprit. A rotting clementine.

Let me tell you the story.

Recently, Aaron and I made friends with a man at church named Frank. Frank is a 60 year old man who has the brain of a 6 year old child. We are not really sure what happened to him, or what his disability is, but he is the sweetest man ever and also freaking hilarious. He doesn't have any family nearby and comes to church alone. During sacrament meeting, Aaron always makes Frank an origami bird out of the program paper and then we spend the rest of church telling Frank to be reverent with the bird. On the Sundays when I am not at church, Frank repeatedly asks Aaron where his wife is and if Aaron is going to pick her up after church. Frank also often tells us that for Sunday dinner he is going to eat a T bone. My favorite time talking to Frank was on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We told Frank we were going to California for Thanksgiving and he asked if we were taking the turkey on the plane with us. We were trying so hard not to laugh.

In the beginning of December, Frank told us he needed a new wallet for Christmas: brown with velcro. We found this exact wallet at Target for $9.99 and put it in a big stocking filled with other tasty goodies that diabetics can have such as soap, CLEMENTINES, and stickers. We brought the stocking to church but Frank didn't come for a few weeks. The stocking then sat in the backseat of our car so we could drive it to Frank's house, but we didn't know where Frank lived. I guess clementines don't last forever, how was I to know? Now the stocking is ruined, but luckily the wallet was protected in its cheery holiday wrapping. Frank, we are coming over tonight.

the monsonskows have been busy

eating salad, aaron's bday, donkey kong championship, san diego thanksgiving, making rhubarb pie, loving nieces, building snowman, hating snow, christmas wishing, talking to albanian evan, zion family reunion, missing friends, growing rat tails, avoiding blogging.