Better Living through Chemistry

I'm not sure that I could live a totally organic life.  There are too many things I like, even rely on, that are the process of chemical alchemy.  I was thinking about that today, as I colored my hair.  I like having the option of not only hiding those shiny, pastel black threads that increasingly populate my hair, but I also really dig have the option of totally changing my hair color on a whim.  There's a small victory in being able to laugh in the face of genetic programming and say, "No!  Today, I wish to have hair the color of Florence!" if I so choose.  Here she is - Florence Welsh, from Florence + the Machine.  Dig the hair color.

That's one of the upsides to chemistry.  Hair color roulette.  I also enjoy Diet Coke.  Yes, I know, it's filled with substances born of the ghoulish work that goes on in unsanitary underground laboratories, but I like the taste.  I also enjoy the revitalizing effects of caffeine.  Therefore, thank you, mad chemists, for Diet Coke.  Oh, and those of you mad chemists that have made Starbucks possible, I would nominate you for the Nobel Prize for Better Living through Chemistry, if there was one.  (Please, Starbucks, just lower the prices a little.I gotta put The Boy through college! )

I know there are ways that I could eliminate the amount of chemical additives in my life -- I could dye my own yarn using herbs, flowers, and crushed bugs.  Yeah, I know that's possible.  But I don't have that skill.  I have the mad skills to turn yarn into stuff, not turn natural yarn into pretty colors.  I do love me some pretty yarn though.  Here's a favorite.

OH THANK YOU GOOGLE ENGINEERS! So, I accidentally closed this page whist searching for some awesome Madelinetosh yarn illustrations, and I thought (with tragic dejection), "Oh s#!+!  I've lost my blog post."  But no, when I went back to my blog headquarters command page -- there it was!  Autosaved!  More like AWESOME SAVED!  But I digress...

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you Madelinetosh, chemical goddess:

See what I mean?  When one has the opportunity, and good fortune, to turn lovely twisty hanks of sheep fluff into gorgeous, wearable art -- why fight the chemistry behind it?  And at the risk of further digressing, let me show you this picture I found, which needs to appear in physical form in my house:

Seriously?  I'd like to thank the genius who created this because it is gorgeous.  To me, that's art.  Better living though chemistry, right there people, right there.

 

Okay, I know the above "stuff" is really not chemistry without which I could not live.  However, I do have to say that I do embrace chemistry seriously, because without it, I would not be alive right now.  I think that I have mentioned in a previous post that I am a diabetic.  I am of the Type 2 variety, so I know that, technically, it is possible to live with T2D and control it through diet and exercise.  While I am working on getting to that point, I am not there yet.  So for right now, I am not better living, but actually living through chemistry.  That goes for my under-producing thyroid as well.  Every day commences with a kick start of Synthroid, to keep my metabolic processing functional.

 

Funny story:  I tried weaning myself off the Synthroid at one point, when I didn't quite understand what it was doing in my body.  My doctor looked at me, quizzically, very dubiously in fact, and said, "You realize that without thyroid hormones you could be dead within five days?"  Okay, then, back on the Synthroid.  Religiously. 

 

Now back to our blog already in progress:  If you've read my post "Relationship Status:  It's Complicated", then you already know that I have an interesting, complex relationship with food.  Working that out is all part of reducing the amount of medication I have to take for the diabetes.  Which is a goal for me for several reasons, including the cost of the meds right now, and, my fear that the newly christened universal healthcare death panels will one day decide that I am not productive enough to be maintained, and I will be unceremoniously stripped of my access to the diabetes medications, leaving me to languish in a diabetic coma until I die.  For now though, I worship at the altar of chemistry which keeps my pancreas chugging along.  Until tomorrow - cheers (clinking of Diet Coke cans)!