RIP Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Sad news today, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died at the age of 50. Reports are that he had a massive MI or SCD and was found unresponsive at his home in Los Angeles at around 1230 PST.

Think whatever you will of him, but there will never be any one as relevant or famous as him in the realm of pop music ever again. I mean, you could argue maybe Madonna or Paul McCartney, but he has no where near the level of celebrity or fascination as Mr. Jackson did. He created and defined the word celebrity. It was his life that created the intense fascination that the world has with famous people and the whole paparazzi culture was invented because of him.

His music was loved by everyone. I'd be willing to bet that there is no one out there who can't appreciate at least one of his songs, whether you're young, old, whatever race, religion, ethnicity. His music affected and touched everyone. Billie Jean, Beat It, PYT, Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Man in the Mirror, Bad, Black or White, Smooth Criminal, Thriller? The list goes on and on.

The events that transpired recently made him look like some sort of eccentric freak, with the plastic surgeries and the legal woes and what not, but it is completely understandable. He's been in the music industry, the grind, since he was like 3 years old. It started with the Jackson 5, then his massive 750 million record selling solo career, until now when he was about to embark on a 50 show tour in London. The man invented the Moonwalk. The one sparkly glove. That red jacket.

Strangely enough, my very first memory of life is of Michael Jackson. I can't remember anything before this moment which is very odd. I was sitting, 3 years old, in front of our old brown Zenith television watching the Thriller music video. My first memory of life is me being scared shitless by zombie Michael Jackson.

No one will ever be a bigger artist, and he was surely be missed.

Real Tourists of NYC aka Amy, Pig in the City

Get it? I went to the home of Jill Zarin (yay!) and the transplanted Whitney Port (ew), for a few days at the beginning of this month with Brandon. BTW, NYC Prep on Bravo is a television show made just for me. I love watching over-privileged youth complain about the atrocities of their lives on the UES while wearing Lanvin flats and Milly sundresses and riding in their town cars through the streets of Manhattan.

But I digress, New York City is the best city in the world. I love it, even though every one of its residency programs dissed me like will.i.am dissed Perez Hilton. Well, not exactly, but close.

We checked into our hotel in Times Square and immediately went a walkin' through the Garment District in search of Papaya King. We ended up eating at a similar hot dog eatery in Penn Station, then we made our way to the Empire State Building and went up since Brandon had never been.

Then we went to my all time favorite, the NY Public Library. It's like that scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's every time I go to the Rose reading room. Sigh. NY is so romantic. Esp with St Patrick's and Rockefeller Center and Paley Park (the teeniest park ever). Brandon then obliged my shopaholic side in the UES, and I got some Pinkberry. I miss it. We walked through Central Park (read: a lot through Central Park) and then back down through Hell's Kitchen in search of some pizza. That first night, we subwayed it down to Chinatown, where Brandon was thoroughly disgusted, and ate at my favorite Vietnamese Restaurant in NYC, Thai Son. Then we covered Little Italy, LES (shed a tear at the former site of CBGBs, damn you John Varvatos), Nolita, Soho, Noho (should've stopped at Pravda), the Village, then up to Union Square Park (and the Strand!) where my legs threatened me with a knife to stop walking and get back on the subway.

On Day two, my legs threatened to strike, but I ignored them like Stacy Karosi ignored those Mexican cooks and walked like an uncoordinated robot the entire day. We trucked it down to the LES and ate bagels and lox at Katz's Deli. Of course, we had what she was having. After breakfast, we went to Washington Square Park which is one of my favorite places ever. After that, we went back to Soho so I could grab some chocolate madeleines from my ultimate fav Balthazar and go to the only US Top Shop location. We rode downtown to Ground Zero and walked around Wall Street and went down to Battery Park to look at the Statue of Liberty. Then we went back up to Bowling Green where we saw a man dressed as a giant panda asking for money. He wasn't actually doing anything, he was just dressed as a panda. Only in NY.

We stopped by the Chanel store where I replaced my lost signature sunglasses. We then cut through Central Park again, stopping in front of the Dakota, and went to Lincoln Center, walking back down to our hotel after stopping at Carnegie Deli. Best pastrami sandwich ever. And the pickles. God, the pickles. That was worth the trip alone. We later met up with our friend Jessica who took us to the East Village for drinks at this awesome little pub called Dempsey's where they were having like a fiddle concert and then to a fantastic Italian dinner at Frank. Dude, my meatloaf/ginormous meatball was amazing. We totally had a NY moment when we were seated thisclose to the table next to us and the woman scoffed at our discussion of the pros/cons of High School Musical. Yeah, she can f off, even if I am not team Efron. I'm jealous though, Jessica's living the dream...ah to be young and chic in NY. Instead, I'm an aging semi-hipster in Kansas City. FML.

The next day, we ate some more deli food before heading to the MOMA where I totally dug the piece with the Smith's album covers and "Portrait of the Laryngologist Dr. Mayer-Hermann." That's me, I'm doing ENT.


Anyway, we shopped a little before going to 'Wich craft (amazing tomato soup!) in Bryant Park. I missed Robert Pattinson by a few hours, he had been in Bryant Park that morning. This is like the 80th time I've said that. It still irks me. It irks me because undeserving little teenyboppers are like pushing him into the street so that he gets clipped by cabs, but I can't even maul him. I swear to Carlisle Cullen, if one perfect hair on his perfect head is harmed, I will smack a twitch (I think you can figure out what combo of two words that is).


We actually cabbed it up to the Met, so that I could eat lunch on the steps and have my Blair Waldorf moment before going in. The Met is my favorite museum in the world. I've spent days in this museum, literally. I love the Temple of Dendur. They also had this cool exhibit on supermodels and were like blaring George Michael's Freedom 90. In the eternal words of Lisa Turtle, "I love art. Are we art? Is art, art?"

We then went up to Jessica's place on the UWS for a wine and cheese party. It was very New Yorky, with a varied cast of characters. Even though I don't think I was the oldest, I felt old. Everyone was like a member of the workforce. Although, I'm not really sure what working in quote unquote finance really entails, everyone seems to do it. They had a really great deck where we drank wine and listened to MGMT; it's a huge apt for NY standards. We went to Shake Shack for a midnight dinner, and it was so the East Coast stepchild of In-N-Out. It was good though.

Last AM, we went to Cafe Metro, these cute little chain of breakfast cafeterias. Then I got the world's best cupcakes (Hummingbird) at Magnolia bakery. I love this city.

OMFG WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW.

Okay, I love Dawn. She alerted me to the best video I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm not exaggerating. This is why we're friends, because she's totally awesome and we like the same non-intellectual things.

I had promised myself I wouldn't post anything until I started writing about my exciting whirlwind life, starting with the NYC, but this is too good to wait.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar on Jimmy Fallon. Ordinarily, you would probably think, yeah, that's pretty cool, he's a good actor, etc.

Um, yeah, except he totally did the entire 9 min interview as Zack Morris. He dressed like him, had hair like him, even had the retro 90s cell phone and the ability to "time out." Literally, did not break the facade for one second. It is the most genius thing ever, and this is why he may move up to position #2 on my list of ten fictional men I would marry. Sorry, Bruce Wayne. I love that MPG has a good sense of humor because some actors do whatever they can to get away from roles that defined them in their youth (read: Elizabeth Berkley). I salute you, Mark-Paul, you are confident in your ability as an actor and that makes me actually respect your work.

I love SBTB. Plus, he and Jessie Spano are totally in for the reunion! Come on, Tiffani-Amber and Dustin Diamond. You better cave and recreate the magic.

The person who uploaded has disabled embedding, so follow this link ZACK ATTACK

And to reward Dawn for being an awesome friend, this New Moon book cover tie in with the movie. It is awesome, and I'm totally not even Team Jacob.


How many days until Taylor Lautner is 18?

back in the saddle again...

I've been totally delinquent in the past few weeks...there's just been so much stuff, I can't handle it.

Since we last visited, I...

... went to New York for a few days with my boyfriend. I missed Robert Pattinson walking in Bryant Park by several hours. FML. Probably for the best, as I didn't need to get arrested for assault before I started residency. I don't think they look kindly on that sort of thing.

...went home to Orange County and had a big graduation party (Swear it was larger than a lot of weddings I've attended).

...got an eponymously named twitter account (infamyous, follow me).

...went to Japan and Taipei. Bought a lot of Hello Kitty stuff. Took 1000 pictures. No joke, my Asian roots finally surfaced during this trip.

...went back home to Orange County and got a new Louis Vuitton purse! Oh and celebrated Father's Day.

...got the new 3Gs iphone. I don't think I've ever loved until now.

...came back to Kansas City and am currently sitting in the corner, silently consoling myself while the tears rapidly fall out of my eyes.

Just kidding, that's a little dramatic. The tears are more easing their way out of the lacrimal glands. Each one of those events noted above deserves its own blog post, and I'll get to it, someday. Tomorrow, I start Residency orientations. I get the dreaded pager, but I also get my coat and keys, etc. I start on Neurosurgery, someone up there either really loves me or really hates me, I'm not sure yet. I'll find out during my first call, which is conveniently on July 4th. If you live in or around Kansas City, I beg you, do not play with fireworks or firearms because if you accidentally maim yourself in or around your head, I'll be the one taking care of you. The odds are already not in your favor.

My name is Amy, and I'm addicted to Twilight.

I seriously shouldn't act this way. I am a 24 year old adult. I am a medical doctor. Like, I'm seriously ashamed at how retarded I get about this Twilight stuff. It's a sickness. I seriously watched a paparazzi video of Robert Pattinson eating dinner the other day. I've never felt more dirty in my life.

And I'm also like shaking whenever he is shown on my tv screen. It's beyond me having a crush on Edward Cullen. I have a full-fledged crush on this 23 year old kid (I am 24). I think it goes without saying, I would sex him. Hard. Seriously, I've meet five year olds who are more appropriate than me. At least who can keep it together and not lose their shit at the mere suggestion of this guy.

New Moon trailer = fan-fucking-tastic. The birthday party scene? I was not even coherent. I was like looking around my empty apartment for some sort of consensus on the awesomeness of that scene. OMFG. I loves me some Jasper. Like obsesionado with Jasper. Edward is of course perpetually emo and distressed and dead sexy. They really sexed Kristen Stewart up for this movie because she looks a lot cuter. And um, I would so statutorily rape Taylor Lautner. I'm just saying...that boy has the best body I've seen in a long time. Dare I say even better than these pictures that I've been surreptitiously looking at all week.

The transformation was pretty badass, even though Jacob totally looks like an Akita we used to have. Someone's been working out...As Dawn (fellow adult female Twilight fan) says, we are going to jail. Just slap the handcuffs on me now and take me away.

Twilight even forced me to watch the 2009 MTV movie awards to catch a glimpse of my boyfriend. I was not disappointed. Thank God for rabid Twilight fans who probably got carpal tunnel from texting and clicking so many times to vote. All worth it, ladies. There was a lot of him.

Robert Pattinson is so fucking hot. And he was hot while wearing a decidedly probably really ugly on a non-movie star navy blazer!!! Plus his undershirt was showing, which is usually a turn off, but I'm totally into it now. And I never thought I'd say this, but Cam Gigandet is fucking hot too. He played Volchok on the OC, and actually he plays a real asshole in everything he's in--but he and RPattz picked up the award for Best Fight, and I wanted to lick the TV. If I wasn't aware how completely unsanitary that is, I would have. Anything to be close to you, Edward Cullen. Anyway, Robert also made an allusion to shitting himself while accepting the award for Breakthrough Male which is strange and yet unsettlingly arousing to me.

The real surprise here is that I think I have a crush on Kristen Stewart now. She accepted the award for Best Female Performance, and she straight up dropped her popcorn statue in the most awkward Bella Swan moment ever, exclaiming, "I'm exactly as awkward as you thought I would be! Bye!" Plus, her dress was killer and she wore Converse with it. I love her eff-you attitude. As a person who has been misunderstood for being standoffish and aloof, I relate to her. She is a badass. Don't ever change. Plus, she and RPattz cannot keep their hands out of their hair in nervousness. It makes me palpitate when they do it.

The worst part of the night was when the pair won for Best Kiss...and teased the fuck out of their faithful audience including me. They made a big show out of the preparation, with RPattz saying, "I have to remove my gum..." and then they slowly, painstakingly moved toward each other, as Robert's eyes were closed in anticipation, his nose resting on her forehead. It was hot. Oh, that I were a hair on her forehead. Sigh. And then Kristen splashed a bucket of cold water on everyone by turning to the camera and blurting out, "Thank you so much!" Without. Kissing. Him. Even though it was so obviously rehearsed, I think Rob was still a little disappointed (as was the rest of the world i.e. me). Like, I don't know if I believe the rumors that have RPattz and KStew hooking up off set...I think they are obviously very close friends and have a lot of chemistry and mutual understanding of each other...but I'm just saying, if I were her, I would take the opportunity and sex him up. This opportunity presents itself very rarely, Kristen. Carpe Diem. So that we may live through you, please. K, thx.

Obviously, twilighters were out in full force because they won 5/7 awards they were nominated for, excluding Best Song (Paramore was robbed by Hannah Montana) and Best Villain (deservedly won by Heath Ledger, sorry Cam hotness), and including Best Picture. Yeah. The Oscars this is not. I'm like totally okay with that though. MTV is a network that perpetuates Spencer Pratt's fame, so what were you expecting? BTW, who else is excited that Kristen Cavalleri is returning to "reality TV" on the Hills? I'm over LC anyway and haven't watched the show in like three seasons.

Andy Samberg was a good host. His opening sequence where he supplants himself into movies was hilarious--especially the Slumdog and Twilight scenes. "Hey, who is that?" upon seeing Edward Cullen. He also did a homemade New Moon trailer with TEEN WOLF. Awesome. Kings of Leon were sexy of course, and knowing that all but one are younger than me makes me want to kill myself.

The real trailer:


Kristen Stewart:


Best Kiss:




Oh I'm going to NYC tomorrow for vacation...and guess who I just found out is starting to shoot his new movie there this week? I'll be stalking...I mean seeing you, RPattz. Shout out to my boyfriend who has been very good natured about my obsession with another man. He knows to not get in the way though. Happy summer everybody!

I don't practice Sangeria.

Sorry I've been a little delinquent on my Recipe of the Week, sue me, it's graduation week. Because I'm feeling charitable, I'm giving you a twofer on summertime beverages.

This one is a good one though...my infamyous Sangria.

1 bottle of Red wine (I prefer Shiraz for its more berry quality, but whatever works)
4 oz of frozen mangoes
3 oz of frozen mixed berries
2 apples, cored and chopped
1 orange, finely sliced into wheels
Sugar to taste

It's best to keep all the fruits skins on to capture their essences, so make sure you wash them well.

Start with the apples, oranges, berries and mangoes in large pitcher. Add the red wine, and mix well. Slowly add sugar in tablespoon increments until you reach a bittersweet taste. Refrigerate for at least an hour before tasting again. The fruits should have broken down a bit, so it will be sweeter, but if it has not reached your desired sweetness, you may add more sugar. Enjoy!

Mango Mojito

You'll have some frozen mango left over from the top recipe if you're only making one pitcher of sangria. With the leftovers, puree it up in a blender with a little bit of water for a thinner consistency.

4 mint leaves, plus one for garnish
2 oz lime juice
1 oz Mango puree
1 oz Simple syrup or 1-2 tsp sugar
2 oz white rum
2 oz club soda

In a highball glass, place mint leaves, lime juice, mango puree, and sugar/syrup. Using a muddler, lightly muddle the ingredients. Add rum. Add ice to the mix you've muddled, and then stir in club soda. Take a shaker and shake mojito between tumbler and shaker until mixed well.

DUNZO.

Like the kids of Laguna Beach used to say, we're dunzo. Today was the last official day of medical school. Well, actually not yet, I am actually sitting in medicine clinic right now, blogging since I have no one to see. I just picked up my cap and gown, I'm ready to go.

I feel like this day is really anti-climactic, since I've been waiting for so long. Aside from the obvious, like basic medical knowledge, taking a history and physical, and general diagnostic skills, I don't really know what else I've learned.

I have not changed that much since the beginning. My bedtime is a little earlier, I may not spend as much time on Facebook and I probably have outgrown a few items of clothing, but other than that, I'm at baseline. I've remained stable, which is a term we always use to describe our patients. It fits perfectly here...I've remained stable throughout the years. I certainly haven't achieved the inner growth and maturity that this school tries to force upon us with our touchy-feely courses (but, to be fair to myself, I think I was operating at a high level of maturity prior to medical school). I got older, and maybe a little bit wiser, but probably not. Let's be real here, I'm the same ole Orange County girl. Seriously, I just referenced Laguna Beach.

This was me four years ago. I used to have luster in my hair and eyes, and an all around youthful glow about me. Look at those chubby cheeks.


This is my residency picture from this year. I know it looks like I had rhinoplasty, but I assure you that I did not.


What I'm really proud of is the fact that I went to 40 concerts during the 6 years I was here...the standouts include Madonna, the Police, 311, Rilo Kiley, Something Corporate and most recently, Franz Ferdinand. It's important to me that I kept up my #1 hobby, music, while I was here. I saw the Trojans win the Rose Bowl. I met Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson (yeah, that was a long time ago). I traveled to Eastern Europe, Western Canada, South Africa. I matched in Otolaryngology.

The end of the year is usually bittersweet, I guess. People are all saccharine and emo, but I like to look at it not as an end, but as the beginning of real life. Real life starts now.

Actually it does, because the last patient was just grayed out as a no show. Stick a fork in it, I'm done.

6 year review in pictures and playlist to follow...