Pictures from Korea.

A request for the patented Buffista ~ma. Have to go to court tomorrow morning to fight a ticket. Two charges - one that's iffy (red light violation) and one that's complete crap (failure to yield to emergency vehicle - it was 2 blocks!)

Ideally, officer-having-something-more-important-to-do-and-just-not-showing-up-ma would be the bestest possible scenario. Failing that, judge-seeing-things-my-way-ma would be next best.

Also, not-puking-from-my-insane-nervousness-ma would also not be a bad notion.

Hi all, just an update on the occasion of my 3 months into the Diabetes diagnosis.

Well, my arm is still bruised from last week's blood letting (testing). The bruise is yellow and black and blue and if I were 10 I would be showing it to all my friends in school.

Meanwhile, I got my Hba1c (aka A1c) results back. Remember this is my average since discovery until now, including the high point down to my current almost managed level. The A1C tells us how bad my blood sugar was doing during the 23 hours, 55 minutes of the day when I *wasn't* testing, essentially showing 3 months 24/7.

When I was diagnosed three months ago my A1c was at a mind blowing 12.8. Since the goal range is 4.1-6.4, that was pretty darned high. A month later, after being in the hospital, then trying to manage by eating right and a daily pill or two, I was at a seminar which offered a quick test. At that time my A1c had already dropped to 10.8.

My A1c 3 month average as of last Friday is officially 8.4.

The next testing is in 3 more months. I've hit my blood glucose target range about 50% of the time the last two weeks. I hope to see the A1c get down to the proper level by then.

All in all, 12.8 to 8.4 in three months seems like a pretty good drop to me.

When I went in for my A1c I got a cholesterol check as well.

My results:

Total: 149 Triglycerides: 59 HDL 36 LDL 101 Ratio: 4.14

Sounds like I have to raise my HDL, but overall good numbers.

Requesting surgery-ma and recovery-ma for my dad - he fell at a local gas station and broke his femur pretty severely. His age and weight make me quite concerned (understatement) about his recovery from a trauma like this. If all goes well, he'll be in surgery this afternoon.

This is not a good season for grandfathers.

My grandfather had a mild heart attack last night. He's stabilized now, but any recovery-ma sent Texas-ward would be most helpful.

My other grandfather is undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Any anti-cancer-ma sent San Francisco-ward couldn't hurt.

Hi everyone. I know that the need for ~ma seems great right now, but if anyone's got some to spare- I just got a call about my grandma. She's been fighting cancer for a while now (She was actually just released from a 2 week stay at the hospital and she's already got to go back) and she doesn't want to go to the doctor anymore. She can't get up on her own, and won't let an ambulance come pick her up so she can get the procedures she needs done. All she wants is Ambien to help her sleep. My grandpa is a wreck.

In all honesty, I don't know if I want her to stop being stubborn, or to let her do this the way she wants..but in any case. If there's any spare ~ma..it would be appriciated.

Low on the priority list, since no one's health is involved, but if there's academic -ma out there, I could use it about now. Off to submit project and discuss foreign languages I don't speak.

I feel kinda petty after all the serious issues above, but the Traffic Court-ma worked fabulously. Judge called my name, I said "Here." He said, "This case has been dismissed. You may leave if you'd like." (Saving me, thanks to the Governator's raised fines, as much as $700).

So I hereby release the -ma, with a pat on the head for a job well done, back into the wild. (I hope it works well as grandpa and grandma-ma).

I just got an offer for a new job.

It is an assistant editor position for a community newspaper, and it sounds like the workload will be insane and there's no money, but I am fairly over the moon about it.

So I release any jobma that had been directed at me back into the wild.

There must have been a great burst of highly concentrated -ma for me, since it went even easier than I'd hoped! I am (almost quite probably) done. While I'm not ruling out the possibility that they'll notice their mistake and take it all back, I have been told that all of my requirements are completed and all I have to do is show up at graduation (though I do hope at some point they tell me where graduation's going to be and how it's going to work). So although it won't be official till May 16, I'm pretty much Master Emily! No, that's not right. There should be a better phrase.

I release the ma back into the ether with my blessings. Love, Emily Buffista, M. fuckin' A.