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.)