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.

I could use some internship~ma this week. Tomorrow I start a summer internship where about 2/3s of my time will be working at an Immgration Detention Facility. I've been told by the people I will be working with that it is basically a medium-security prison and that while some of the people I'll be dealing with are just regular immigrants who got detained, the vast majority of them are convicted criminals. Having never been in a prison before, I'm not too sure what to expect.

I visited Grandma yesterday, and she is feeling well enough to sit with me and share coffee and a donut, sit outside on her swing and (yay!) take her chemotherapy treatment this week.

~Ma is much appriciated and sent gratefully back into the cosmos!

I just took two cats for a friend who will shortly not be able to care for them any more. One's a tad crazy, but they're otherwise great. But he would get up at the crack of dawn (4:30 am) to let them out. They think I should do this, but I just can't. Actually, I really can't, because they need to stay inside for a week or so (or longer if I can swing it, because eagles have been known to fly off with cats here, so I'd really like it if they became housecats). Plus, I have a new job and a terrible cold and company. I could use health~ma, patience~ma, plus perhaps a little organizational and creativity~ma for the job.

Thank you!

Some of you may know that I run a small press game company under the same name that I post under, The CaBil.

One of my releases, Dirt Cheep Cityscapes, was just announced as a Origins Awards Nominee, the closest thing that the industry has to the Academy Awards.

Needless to say, pleased! Actual relevance of the award is pretty much nil, but still neat!

Even though I've been so lurky of late that I fear most of you have forgotten who I am, I thought I would go ahead and make it official - Going Continuing dark charcoally grey lurkiness as I have to not only get caught up, but ahead, at work in preparation for my upcoming week in NYC.

Looking forward to meeting any NYCistas I can hook up with, but I do/will miss the (semi) regular chatting here.

'F anybody wants to say Hey, profile addy's good.

Also, to re-iterate to the NYCistas, looking forward to as many F2F encounters as time permits. Feel free to e.

Edited to add actual dates, duh. Arrive in NY 5/21 9pm-ish, depart 5/30 6pm-ish. Committed to relatives in NJ from 5/28 onward. Planning to go to as many touristy things as we can, but schedule is still very open for dinner, lunch, drinks, etc.

I'll be in Boston from this Saturday until next Wednesday on a work conference, and it would be swell if I could meet up with some of the Boston/Sommervillistas while I'm there. My evening schedule is kind of wonky, but lunch/coffee/drinks would be nifty if you guys have time. Profile addy is good.

Logging off for a week as of now. Play nice. Here is a big old tub of ~ma for everyone what needs it.