Hau Oli Makahiki Ho! (Happy New Year)

2009!!!
I've never felt so positive, optimistic and energenized than I feel right now, at this point in my life. We live in a world where change is happening all around us. Make yourself a part of it and bask in it! People are starting to feel proud to be Americans again, and while we know there is an uphill battle in front of us, I feel that for the first time in a long time, people are motivated to fight it!

2008 was by far the best year of my life - I made peace with people that I never thought I could, I reconnected with my father on a comfortable level after 12 years of silence, I made some amazing new friends, I made a freakin' movie! I did a lot of traveling, I got promoted to Lieutenant Commander, I got accepted to the Residency of my choice and I'm moving to Los Angeles in 4 days! I got a tattoo. I fell in love with an ex-boyfriend again, I cried, I laughed about it. I fell in love during a trip that I won to Cancun, I cried, I laughed about it. I got into the best shape of my life, I joined a very expensive gym. I "came out" to all of my Marines and Sailors during my going away party when I separated from the military and they all didn't care a bit - in fact, they took me out to celebrate (and many of them told me some surprising things themselves). I surprisingly stayed in touch with and even grew closer to a few select Soldier's Angels, which have become a part of my life now (even though I don't get to talk to them as much as I would like). I joined Facebook. I finished my commitment to the military after 7 years!

Let's take a break and look at some Outs and Ins of 2008/2009...

Dr. RJ's Outs and Ins of 2007/2008 (as per my U.S. Sensus):

OUT / IN:

Honolulu / Hollywood
Smooth Bodies / Chest Hair (trimmed of course)
Gay Rights / Vampire Rights
DVDs / Blu Ray Discs
Short Marine Haircuts / FoHawks
Pomegranate / Acai Berry
Expensive Diesel Tee-Shirts / Hot Volcom Tank Tops
Buffy / Tru Blood
Lindsay Lohan & Leona Lewis / Lady Gaga
My Space / Facebook
RJ (since he's not Active Duty any longer!) / still many gays in the military
Smoking Cigarettes / Protein Shakes
Absolut / Three Olives
Bud Light / Coors Light
Fossil / Nixon
Fast Food / Whole Foods
AOL / G-mail
Rainbow Roll / Tobiko with Quail Egg
TV Antennae / High Definition Digital Cable
Bush / Obama
Oppression, Stupidity & Embarrassment / Change, Charisma & Patriotism
Jose Cuervo / Patron XO Cafe
Paula Dean / Healthy Eating
Empty Bank Accounts / Using "The Secret" to get money
complicated TV shows, like "Lost" / Easy TV shows like "Entourage" and "Tru Blood"
Wolverine / Watchmen
Mapquest / GPS
Watching porn on websites like X-tube / Buying Blu-Ray porn :) lol
LOL / actually laughing
long impossible to read blog entries / "Conciseness is Niceness"


So what lies ahead? Surely an amazing year! As far as my New Year's Resolutions?

Alright, here goes:
1. Stop sneaking the occasional cigarette when I have a few drinks (hey we all have our faults. I may be a doctor, but I'm not perfect.)
2. Continue to live your life by "The Four Agreements" (my favorite book by Don Miguel Ruiz)
3. Continue to use "The Secret" and be grateful for everything you have each and every day. (It was one of the things that got me through Iraq and changed my life.)
4. Work hard and focus on your Residency this year.
5. Start paying back all of your school loans and learn to be more frugal...that means no more Peter Lik artwork RJ!

AND NOW, SOME OF RJ's TOP TEN LISTS...

DJ RJ's Top 10 Crossroads Songs of 2008: (available on I-Tunes)

#10 Duffy - "Mercy" (Gareth Wyn Mix)
#9 Janet - "Feedback" (Ralphi Rosario Mix)
#8 Rihanna - "Disturbia" (Jody Den Broeder Mix)
#7 Leona Lewis - "Bleeding Love" (Moto Blanco Mix)
#6 Britney Spears - "Womanizer" (Radio Mix)
#5 September - "Cry For You" (Jackal Mix or X-Mix)
#4 Timbaland - "Apologize" (Lenny B Mix)
#3 Ida Corr - "Let Me Think About It" (Fedde Le Grande Remix)
#2 Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis - "Just Dance" (Tony Arzadon Remix)
#1 Pussycat Dolls - "When I Grow Up" (Ralphi Rosario Remix)

Honorable Mentions:
Annagrace - You Make Me Feel
Ercola - Every Word (Wendel Kos Mix) [the most played dance song around the globe for '08]

Top 10 New Friends Made/Grew Closer With During 2008:

#10 Ersan Kapan
#9 Marissa Myers
#8 Adam Mitchell
#7 Michael Vacirca
#6 Karen Yamada
#5 Jennifer Cho
#4 Kevin Blickfeld
#3 Mike Clausen
#2 Joseph Esser, aka "Frog"
#1 Katherine Solomon

Top 10 Photographs of 2008:

NUMBER 10:
"Josh's Dirty Thirty in San Francisco"
One of my best friends Josh turned 30 this past year, so friends from all over the world gathered in San Fran to celebrate it. I surprised him and rented a limmo to pick him up at the airport (with Katherine). We drove around San Fran for a while, sipping on Moet and riding back and forth over the (cloudy) Golden Gate Bridge. Great times. "Crossroads...Meibos Limmo...You're Hot!"



NUMBER 9:
"RIMPAC" - After 7 years in the Navy, during this past summer I boarded my first ship. (Kind of ironic huh?) It was 4 weeks on board the U.S.S. BonHomme Richard sailing around the Hawaiian islands doing a training mission. I loved it.



NUMBER 8:
"The Pitstop" - On the way to Cancun, I laid over in Phoenix, AZ for 10 hours. Of course, the Phoenix crowd gathered for a short, but very fun night of debauchery! "Hawai'i's in the house!!!...round of drinks for the bar on me!!!!"



NUMBER 7:
MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) Banquet. We posed for GQ! How'd we do???




NUMBER 6:
Jacintha Brown's going away party. While it was very sad to see her and Tia leave, it was an amazing party - as you can see!



NUMBER 5:
Easter Weekend at the Mondrian Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ! It was this weekend that I met Katherine Solomon for the first time and concurrently had the best Easter of my life - no family, no ham, no baskets or Easter eggs, just cocktails by the pool, best friends and shrimp cocktail!!!



NUMBER 4:
The tattoo - I'd been wanting to get one for months. I waited until 4 hours before my flight out of Hawai'i, but I finally did it!



NUMBER 3:
"Team Rasta Skydiving" - I went skydiving with some of my best friends over North Shore, Oahu in August. It was on my life "To Do List" for a while. It was amazing, if not nauseating...!




NUMBER 2:
"Cancun, Me, Mike Clausen" ...Leona Lewis and Jordin Sparks to follow in a few months!



NUMBER 1:
The leading actors of 'Halloween II: The Escape of Michael Meyers' (the horror movie I made) on the way to the Red Carpet Premiere of the movie release, making a pit stop in front of our limmo.



HONORABLE MENTIONS:
1 - Victor, J-Cho and RJ during Victor's visit to Hawaii.


2 - RJ on a Ducatti for the first time - foreshadowing for 2009????


3 - RJ and Mike, at the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. Nuff Said.


4 - The Horror Movie Poster by Dana Tannakka - it came out amazing! (P.S. - That's actually Josh in the costume on the poster)


5 - MDA 2008, you had to be there


This month in the Northeast was busy but awesome! I spent some quality time with mom, went to the annual Christmas Eve Party at Rena's House (which I had a lot of fun at - can you believe that hot young looking thing in the picture is turning 40!!!...)



I had the annual Bethlehem Brew Works lunch with Jan and her boyfriend Anthony (also in the pic is my sister Kelly, brother-in-law Mike and me)...



I had lunch with Barbara Delia and my mom...



I met with an old friend Mike Vacirca and spent an amazing weekend in New York City seeing him, Katherine, Joseph and some other friends...








...and I even organized a medical school reunion with 4 of my best friends and I in New Brunswick, NJ --- we all lived together for 3 years in a med school fraternity named Phi Sig but have lost touch over the past few years. It was awesome catching up with those guys.



That's about it everyone. I'm super excited to leave for L.A. in 4 days, and while I'm a little nervous, I know that great things await me. I want to wish everyone a very safe and Happy New Year! May good luck be bestowed upon all of you and may my friends overseas stay safe and rest easy knowing that they are are in our thoughts and prayers every day.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Yeehaw 2009!

(PS Click "Follow This Blog" on the top right portion of this page to be notified of updates to this blog, as I'm going to stop sending out blog update e-mails to everyone in the near future.)

Christmas Season in the Northeast

The last time I can remember it happening was about 25 years ago. I was about 7, and it was almost time for bed it the little town of Nazareth. It was a cold Winter's night and my dad had lit a fire in our black, cast iron, wood burning stove. I remember this night because we had just finished eating a few chestnuts which we cooked atop the stove. It was at that moment that I heard the announcement, "There is a Winter Storm Warning in effect for the Lehigh Valley with snow accumulations expected to exceed 6 inches overnight. Stay tuned to the morning news for school closings..." I remember going to bed with a certain excitement about myself, I had a smile on my face and knew that it would take some time to fall asleep, for the prospect of the first snow fall was in the air (along with the notion of a day off from school).






Last night I went to bed with that same energetic buzz! Granted - instead of smoke from the wood burning stove, the smell of a burnt out electric mixer was in the air (the motor couldn't handle mixing all of the cookie batter and I accidentally blew it out when the dough was too thick). And instead of being nestled all snug in my bed as a child, my feet were now sticking out of the end of my mom's spare Twin. And instead of sugarplums, there were very different visions dancing in my head. Nevertheless, I fell asleep hoping it would snow, and when I woke up for a glass of water in the middle of the night, I had to sneak a peak downstairs to see what it was like outside...





When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but tiny little snowflakes from both far and anear. The Rte. 22 Highway lights on the breast of the new fallen snow, gave a luster of midday to the objects below. This morning I woke up and like a school boy who just heard on the radio "Nazareth Area High School - CLASSES CANCELLED!", I was suprised to see snow on the ground. It was my first real snowfall in a year and it was nice!



Now while the holiday season can be filled with joy and peace, not before long does it become apparent that the holly plant has the sharpest leaves of any if its parasitic predecessors. Put simply - this season can suck balls! Three weeks ago, in Hawaii, shopping at the grocery store for some last minute Thanksgiving trimmings, I heard that annoying high pitched Salvation Army bell. What's worse, the 500 pound Samoan blocked the entrance to the store, so in essence you had to "pay the toll" to get past him and enter the store.

This past week my Christmas Cookies burnt...








...my rental car was all but smashed in when an anxious Walmart shopper was anxious to pull in a spot not 2 spots away from a vacant lot.

My friend Barbara Delia had her debit card stolen in Philadelphia and because the thief charged several hundred dollars at the local CVS before the bank stopped the card, she won't have her money back until the paperwork from the bank gets processed in several weeks, causing her to be unable to buy the holiday gifts she wanted for her friends and family.

Many will be alone this Christmas as every piano key from radio Christmas Carols cause tear after tear of regret to drop from their eyes.

Many have deteriorating health, or have friends or family with medical problems. They wonder if they'll make it to see next Christmas, or even next year.

Many are poor, or homeless without so much as a roof over their heads. And when their Christmas snow falls, it falls on the box or blanket that they live in.

So when I find that the Grinch appears and wants to steal my Christmas spirit, I do one of two things. First, I stop and take a moment to realize how grateful I am for all of my blessings. That I have the friends around me, and not just the 196 friends that I accumulated on Facebook in the last mere 72 hours, real friends like Jan & Victor that are there for me if I need them. I have my family that cares about me - my sister Kelly, Mike, Kiera, Ryan, and my mom (though she can drive me nuts, I love her dearly). While I know many that are overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany in war zones or treatment areas, I can trust in God and trust that my prayers, cards and packages will greet them with a smile and in some way help to keep them a little safer. While I have fears of my future, concerns about the present, and occasionally regrets from my past, I trust that God has a plan and that we must remember the true meaning of Christmas, remembering Christ's birth in a manger in the quiet town of Nazareth, not more than 2 miles from where I write (well, you know).

If none of these things can comfort me, then I do the next best thing:
GET A PHILLY CHEESE STEAK FROM PAT's OR GINO'S FAMOUS STEAKS!!!!









As Christmas Day approaches with more anticipation that the Season 5 Premiere of LOST on Wed Jan 21st on ABC, I leave everyone with a few Christmas tips...

1. If you see Absolut Los Angeles Vodka and think it might be good, it's not, it sucks.




2. If you want a festive holiday cocktail for your party - do 'Three Olives' Pomegranite Vodka, with a splash of Pomegranite Liquor and Limited Edition Diet Pomegranite 7up. It takes great and you can make up some fun festive name for it if you're creative enough.

3. Don't cook your cookies on the bottom rack in the oven and if you've been cooking all day, remember: your oven might be hotter than 350 degrees if it's an old one.

4. Be friendly and kind to others, especially those less fortunate.

5. Don't get stressed! So if you receive a Christmas Card from someone that you didn't send a card to yourself, don't fret, just be grateful and thank them the next time you see them. Chances are you won't need to worry about the problem happening next year.

6. Don't buy Baileys for ANYONE as a gift - it's so 5 years ago. Let someone try something new, or give a nice bottle of Sparkling Wine instead. (Maybe my sister will post a few suggestions for us in the comments)

7. Brazilian Acai is the new Pomegranite!

8. RJ's Birthday is Friday. I'll be 33.

9. Say a prayer or make a toast that includes our troops overseas.

10. To save time, do your holiday shopping on-line (I did ALL mine on-line this year). You can even go to www.hallmark.com and personalize greeting cards with your own message for .99 cents and have them delivered to your door in 3 days! Use the website www.goodshop.com and you can donate money to troops overseas AND shop at all your major stores at the same time!

and finally, don't lose sight of the true spirit of Christmas. Start a new holiday tradition this year that doesn't involve money - my family stopped stocking stuffers and instead, we each write down things we are grateful for with one another and put those in our stockings and read them on Christmas morning! Be kind to others, even those that have wronged you. (Yes Jan and Victor, I'll probably contact and see my father at some point, because its the right thing to do). Spend time with your family (tomorrow I'm taking my mom to lunch in Philly with Barbara Delia and taking them to the Philadelphia Orchestra for their holiday show). And remember, when all else fails, comfort food!!!!!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

The New Tattoo & Ryan's Baptism

I finally did it, I got a new tattoo - 3 hours before boarding the plane to leave Hawai'i! I wanted to get something meaningful in a location that meant something to me, so I selected the underside of my right arm (several of my best friends in Hawai'i have ink there) and I decided on the Hawaiian island chain with the Hawaiian state flag in the islands. It was an extremely painful hour...above are the pics of the progression from beginning, to the stenciling, to the ink, to the finished product.

Since I've been home, I've been staying at my sister's house in Virginia, just about 30 minutes outside of D.C.

Last week we went to Lowe's and bought a Christmas Tree. It was a great day out - despite the VERY cold temperatures I've been aclimating to...





...and last weekend was my nephew's Baptism...




...I was honored to be the Godfather. Ryan (my nephew) screamed bloody murder the moment the priest moved in towards him, and when he finally got to the point where water was to be poured on his forehead, he was screaming and kicking as hard as he could to the amusement of the entire congregation, who were watching in disbelief. The climax, however, was when the priest went to anoint Ryan's forehead with oil and Ryan lifted up his hand and smacked the priest's hand away! I've never seen anything more amusing in my life - although my poor sister was mortified. He looks so innocent below, doesn't he???



Last night I had dinner with one of my friends named Eddie (a friend I met in Puerto Vallarta with Victor) and tomorrow night I'm going to venture out into D.C. a bit to check out the bar scene. This weekend Victor is having a party at his house in PA and I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some old friends. Life has definetly slowed down since I left Hawai'i - and I'm thankful for the much needed break.

Other than that, I joined facebook and I'm about to delete my myspace account. You can search my Facebook profile by "Robert John Matyas" or rjmatyas@gmail.com

One of my New Years resolutions is to create more concise blog entries, how am I doing???