M.I.A. due to soap

You know, I could stand to be happy with doing just a few things. But somehow, I'm incapable--my interests go all over the place, and as soon as I've so much as thought an idea through, I'm leaping to another. I'd say that "this is the product of a healthy active mind," but it actually just resembles the picky child who quits every hobby before she gets good at it. In my case, before I ever get to the point of using the supplies I buy for it.

Examples: Christmas lights. I bought a bunch of LED lights with my neighbor, since we live in attached apartments, we were going to decorate. This was a week and a half ago, and all I've done is put some grandma knicknacks outside.

#2: this blog. I'm trying to warm up to the idea again, I really am.

I could go on and on with examples, but I forgot most of the other endeavors this year.

There is one interest, though, that has stood for about a year. And it's completely weird that it's stuck. I believe I'm addicted, actually.

I like making soap. Real soap. As in, measure out the oils and pour lye into water and get chemical burns Soap.

Last Christmas, I was short on money and went to Hobby Lobby to find something to make as gifts for everyone. I had no idea what I was looking for. I then came across the "melt-and-pour" soap base bars. This is the cheap and easy way to do it, but I had no idea at the time. I made them all within a few days, and bought more base. Thought about the business opportunities. At some point I realized that I didn't know how to make soap base at all, and I would have to learn if I were to start selling soap at a Farmer's Market or something.

A year went by; I didn't make anymore soap. I thought it was gone like all my other hobbies. Then October came around, and I started to research how to make soap base. It took me approximately 2 months of reading to believe I had a good theoretical grip on the process. About 2 weeks ago, I bought all my materials bit by bit.

Two weeks later, I've spent ~$120 on soap materials. The oils aren't cheap. The scents are SO EXPENSIVE. That's another idea: I need to get into the essential oils business, I'd be a millionaire. My fridge is empty, and everything I own is covered with a thin layer of soap and/or lye. I botched my first batch because I measured everything in fluid ounces instead of weight, including the lye, and once cured, my soap would create rashes on everyone I gave them to. This is a dangerous process!

But four batches later (including 2 crumbled to the point where they're unusable), I have real soap, like people in the 17th century used to make, with no preservatives or harsh chemicals. I know exactly what's in them, ingredient by ingredient, and the respective amounts. I know what oils turn which colors, and that honey caramelizes and turns everything orange (and smells like sugar cookies!).

The only thing I don't understand, and what I might never understand, is how the hell lye water mixes with oil to make soap.

Harsh, caustic drain cleaner + the hardest thing to clean = sanitation. Maybe that's why I stuck with this hobby--it has an inherent mystery of nature that I have learned how to manipulate for the benefit of my species. Soap/sanitation is one of the most important inventions of the human race. I say "invention", but it's really the chemistry of nature that put it there for us to find.

And when it all goes to hell, whether it be zombie-related or nuclear fallout, if I survive, I'll know how to make soap. Without soap, disease and pestilence run rampant.

Ok, so maybe it won't all go to hell and this will just be some silly hobby that I could bypass completely by going to Walgreens, but putting it that way makes me feel important. So shut up.