hello everyone! i'm sorry for not adhering to my stated post goal of twice monthly; all i can say in my defense is that the last several months have basically had me feeling like i was being hit in the face by a large stick by life, repeatedly. it's been a slog, certainly not aided by what seemed like three dismal months straight of rain and gloom, but i've come out of it with a great enthusiasm for spring and a great relief that the semester is almost (nearly!) over.

i moved to a new apartment this month, and since the move i've definitely found it easier to adhere to several solarpunk goals that i have found difficult to achieve in the past. the first is ecobricking and reuisng plastic bags-- now that i live in a place with a dishwasher and don't have to wash a mountain of dishes every time i cook, i have much more enthusiasm for washing and drying little bits of plastic. the second thing i've gotten better at is eating leftovers and using up everything in my fridge. it sounds silly but having a microwave in this apartment, which can warm things up in minutes, instead of a toaster oven, which took almost 20 minutes to heat a dish up from refrigerator-cold, has really helped me stay on top of eating everything that i cook or buy. the third thing is cooking more at home! as someone who works at a restaurant, food from a restaurant almost always involves a huge amount of plastic waste, to say nothing about the disposable utensils, plastic wrapping or packaging that takeout comes in; eating less pre-prepared frozen meals has also really helped me cut down on waste! it drives me nuts that our new building doesn't offer composting, though; i'm close to pulling the trigger on a lomi but i want to look into other options before i spend $200 on something i hopefully won't have to use for very long

i'm also working on some other solarpunk goals. i recently found the permies forum and the pep/skip program, which is basically permaculture merit badges meant to further and broaden your skillset; while i think that permaculture is a colonialist, elitist haven for annoying and ecotistical men, the skip/pep program is basically the best i've found for a rubric of skills i'd like to develop, so i'm currently working towards a few of the badges (barf, but also... kind of gratifying to have work rewarded in a way that isn't common in adulthood). hopefully this new place also reignites my interest in sewing and jewelrymaking; it's a new personal goal to really minimize buying any new clothing items, especially since hauling all my clothes from one place to another was a huge pain, also sort of embarassing.

anyways! i hope everybody reading this is having a lovely spring or autumn. these transitional seasonal periods are definitely my favorite parts of the year, and i hope that everybody has a chance to get outside or at least look out a window. these goals or changes might seem small, but i hope that they help everyone reading this also feel good about any small changes they might also be trying to make in their own lives. until next time!