Commencement and Commencing

I'm graduating in four days (and five, my school does a university-wide ceremony and a separate college/department-wide ceremony, mine happens to also be the next day) and it is very, very cool. I have a final on Wednesday that I don't have to study for because it's going to get dropped and I finished my last paper as an undergrad on Saturday. Now I get to read books just because I want to! And search for a job, but that's not necessarily something I want to talk about. My family is also coming for a few days and will be in Amherst and see my apartment for the first time. I'm freaking out a bit about that, I mean... what will they do?! It's not exactly the best tourist destination. I'll probably take them to some event that's mildly interesting, like a museum.

Fresh milk from just around the corner 

Fresh duck egg from a friend

On another note, I've been really trying to get into "the local" movement and make my home mostly non-toxic. By the end of the year, I hope to be using about 95% green, homemade cleaning products that are incredibly less expensive, still effective, and natural. I've always cooked a lot (almost every night) but I still ate a lot of preserved, pre-made foods and fast foods that aren't really actually good for you. So I'm trying to move away from that by cooking my own food (preferably with farmer's market produce), even when it would normally be easier to eat out... but much more expensive. Cal made some homemade Pad Thai that was delicious and probably cost about $8 for all of the ingredients, and we have plenty of ingredients for at least five more meals. The other day I made a chicken pot pie from scratch and was able to use a bunch of random vegetables and simple staples to throw it together; even the pie crust was easy.


So I hope you're ready for a lot of do-it-yourself, "this is possible", hey-I-canned-my-own-jelly posts. I'll be writing about my experiences and any learning curve tips I picked up along the way, ideally in such a fashion that will make you want to try too and share your own experiences.