Hey! I am moving to New York in February. Westchester County, exact location TBD. I've been in LA and SF Bay Area for most of my life so this is a big change. I look forward to being closer to East Coast peeps!

Any SF Bay locals who are interested, my good friend Mary is hosting a farewell open house in Oakland on the afternoon of the 1st. I'd love to see anyone who can make it - she lives near Lake Merritt. Email me if you'd like details.

Tim's surgery is at 4:30 a.m. board time (7:30 a.m. Eastern), so if you have any ~ma to spare for an easy, successful surgery and an easy, quick recovery, I'd appreciate it. (Also stay-calm~ma for me would be swell.)

As a heads up to those who don't have contact with Javachik outside of here, she came down with a brutal, life-threatening case of the flu while on vacation in Hawaii and ended up in the ER with two collapsed lungs. She is recovering at with a friend in Kona but is still very sick. She has asked for no cards or gifts since she isn't at home and is in the middle of moving East, so I thought it might be nice if anyone who wanted to send her love could do so in a thread like F2F (or another little-used thread so she can easily find the messages?) or something. She can't do screens right now, but I know she would appreciate eventually seeing the love. I know few people on the planet who are as generous as Java, and I just wanted you all to know to send healing, loving vibes her way.

So this horrible thing just happened and I can't say anything about it. But my family really needs som ~am right now. Health, safety, legal, etc.

For a piece of good news in all of the horribleness... MedicGuy proposed last night, and I said yes! A picture of the ring is on FB and Instagram.

My 100 year old grandmother is in hospice (at home) and isn't expected to live past the weekend. I can't go visit her and we won't be able to have a funeral. (Her rabbi will handle what he can from Cincinnati but her family won't be there.)

We celebrated her 100th birthday in the fall and I'm so grateful she was able to be there surrounded by 200 friends and family when she was healthy and able to enjoy it.

And she's gone.

Amyth check-in from FB, with her permission: currently way behind in Natter, is recovering from having surgery to clear out bacterial infections in both hips, an experience we all hope she never has to repeat.

(Amyth has given us permission to give people major updates here in Beep Me so she doesn't have to stressball about updating in multiple places, so if you are FB friends with her, we're allowed to share with the class.)

Hiya Buffistas. I wanted to share with you all that I am a non-binary person, using they/them pronouns. After a lifetime of knowing that my gender identity never matched up with what I was told my gender was, I began quietly coming out (all over again!) about three years ago.

I know it can be challenging to adapt to using different pronouns for a person you've known a long time, so I've updated my tag line accordingly.

This month marks twenty years that I've been a Buffista and part of this community. I couldn't have made it half as well or nearly as far without the support, advice, honesty, compassion, and love I've received from our community. I've been a Buffista now for more than half my life, and I'm so grateful for all of you.

Amyth Facebook update: she's moving to rehab after her hip surgeries; she'll be there until the next chemo round starts. It'll be 5 weeks in the hospital between the various things, which was not what anyone wanted in the current state of the world!

(Editorially speaking from me: amyth's hospital has been very on top of things from long before anyone in NC knew this was going to be such a big thing. They are doing great and there's no doubt the care she's getting is best of class. But they've super locked down any outside contact for very good reasons, so let's throw some love here and on facebook!)