The last couple of days have been intense and frustrating. I believe that, 88 days in the strike (we're a fucking piano, folks,) things are moving in the right direction on several fronts. I am quite certain that none of this is going to be anywhere remotely close to easy. I also feel like going to sleep at some point before 8:30 AM this morning might have, in retrospect, been a very good idea and that the city should really stop this whole "No R service between 59th street and Pacific Street on the weekend" bullshit. But I think there were a lot of things about yesterday to inspire confidence and to be excited about working on. And there were some things to be frustrated about, of course. ([redacted], you need to stop storming out of meetings. To paraphrase AMK, it just get [sic] less funny and more sad every time.) But I want to say how inspired I am by all the folks who've gotten the lockout letters from the administration and are holding their ground and refusing to let themselves and their colleagues be silenced or defeated by John Sexton's brutal, but also in some ways last-ditch effort to force us back to work. Like one of them said several months ago,

"Despite all the bastards, we're still on strike."