Yoga, Gardening, Reading, Writing and Theater: Seeking Escape Velocity From Union Politiics

Sunday, June 3


I'm trying to re-order some of my priorities as an alt from union activities.

This post is about that attempt. If you don't give a crap skip this.


Here are some photos of my latest garden project - a walking rock garden path. I tossed some wild flower seeds out and we'll see what happens.







Yesterday I left this garden and attended the MORE meeting on a beautiful Saturday - at least it was beautiful when I left Rockaway. I left home around noon because I was in touch with a UFT delegate who wanted to meet earlier before the meeting but on the way she texted she wasn't feeling well.

So I  had a few hours to wonder around Park Avenue where there was a festival of sorts - I ate and did some thinking - I ate some more and did some more thinking before heading to the meeting at 3:30 (where I knew a batch of people would be less happy to see me than Unity Caucus at a DA). The meeting ended promptly at 6 PM - in MORE the trains run on time -- unlike ICE meetings where we have so much to talk about, four hours goes by in a blink. I will report on the MORE meeting and also on the last ICE meeting - which began at 4 PM and some of us didn't leave until almost 9 PM.

Tomorrow, Monday, I have a morning hot yoga class and in the evening it will be the final UFT Ex Bd meeting of the year that is open to members.

I'm not going even though I know some good stuff will be brought up. I trust Arthur and Mike to report on what they are going to do there.

There is an event for Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams at the Cherry Tree bar near the Barclay Center and I would have gone to that because I like Williams, running for Lt. Gov. But I won't make that either.

The major conflict is that the writing group (mostly fiction) I've been part of since its founding over a decade ago (or maybe longer since I can't seem to filter times very well) is also meeting tomorrow. Most writing groups don't last this long and I am hoping to keep help keep this alive - a number of people who have passed through over the years and we have only 4 regulars left. A fascinating new person I am hoping to recruit for the group that I met when I worked the Botanical Garden plant sale events last month may be coming - she is a native of New Zealand and spent 40 years working at the United Nations in some very delicate high level stuff. She may be writing a memoir and that would be exciting. A college student is also coming for the first time with a short story. I don't submit any writing since I stopped working on a novel about two years ago. But I read and comment on the others. So far out of this group a few books have been published. But I want to get back to my novel and maybe a book on the UFT and spend less time doing this blogging thingy.

That I am choosing to go to the writing group instead of the Ex bd meeting is a significant choice for me --- though that crazy drug pulling me to union politics is still tugging. But I'm trying to wean myself off the bug.

I went to the gym early where I did a spin class and did some weights - two hours and I was feeling fine. This was my 2nd spin class in a week - I hadn't done spin for at least 10 years or more. I did yoga yesterday and hot yoga last week and another one tomorrow. I am trying to walk as much as I can. I am trying to avoid skipping the gym because I feel I have to put something up on the blog. And though I'm getting a Skinny award I am far from being skinny.

Over the past 6 weeks since we got back from Greece, I've been focused on gardening and continuing the renovation since Sandy storm. I put a lot of time in the plant sale and tinkering in my own garden where I can sit in a number of spots and have some great views that change regularly depending on the season. Friday, after spending 5 hours at the Rockaway Theater working on sets for the next show I came home and spent 2 more hours transplanting two small trees -- I actually swapped them so in essence I didn't have to dig new holes.

And of course there's the regular work at the local theater.

I want to look into a drawing or painting class. I can see myself sitting in the garden painting.

I've had a jig saw puzzle craze over the past 8 months. I go down to the basement and work for hours while listening to WFAN or NPR.

And it's baseball season and I love listening to Yankee - and Met games and the commentary around sports in general on the radio. Sitting in front of a TV doesn't work for me.

And reading -- fiction and non-fiction. I'm in the midst of Kim Stanley Robinson's Sci-fi Mars trilogy - almost 2000 pages on the future colonization of Mars. I recently finished a book on Roman history - The Storm Before the Storm - how the pre-cursors of the fall of democracy in Rome were set a hundred years before it actually came apart. I think of you had lived in 200 BC and predicted Augustus and the Empire that survived for 500 years you would have been deemed a lunatic. I've got a massive list of stuff to read, yet getting through the NY Times every day can be a chore.

So I'm trying to shake loose from being tied down by UFT and caucus  stuff and branch into new areas.

Some of my friends in Unity Caucus will suggest I try sky diving.

But of course the calls and emails keep coming in to meet and talk and get involved, especially with a UFT election coming next year.

Hey, where is the nearest sky diving facility?