Casper's Twin

Since I was a very small child I have been a sun worshiper! I love summer, I love being tan and I don't care what people think about it! When I was a teen my summer jobs consisted of swim instructor & lifeguard... or camp swim team coach.

Needless to say I picked a summer job that would keep me in the sun as much as possible. I have always had great skin for tanning also, I get a beautiful golden bronze color to my skin, very sun kissed and sexy! To be safer though and avoid severe burns I developed a routine for myself before work every summer, and I continued it into adulthood.

Starting the end of Feb or early March I would start going to the tanning salon 1-2 times a week, not a crazy fake baker going every single day and turning orange, but enough to start conditioning my skin for the sun and developing a "base tan" I would continue this for 6-8 weeks until I had a consistent light gold color to me before I hit the real rays! This was to avoid the first day of real sun scorching burn!

Every year it worked like a charm, If I did burn my first day out in the real sun, it was insignificant and would fade within a day or 2.

the purpose for this little explanation is simple, I did not do that this year! In fact the last time was golden and sun kissed was the summer of 2009, our 1st anniversary trip to Jamaica.... the reason for that is that following month in Aug I found out I was pregnant. The summer was just about done when I found out, and I was pregnant for the 2010 base tan season ( your not allowed to fake bake while pregnant) and the summer of 2010 I had a newborn that I could not have out in the sun ( therefore I was pasty not sexy last summer) I literally got 2 hours by myself on the beach last summer to get a little color, that was it. This years fake bake season just didn't happen due 2 lack of funds and time!

So my skin has not been tan in 2 years, literally pasty pale ( which I have never in my life been, I always have at least a little gold even as a child)

WELL, Sunday at soccer practice it was beautiful out, sunny and 70 degrees, felt like heaven! the entire 2 hours I was there I felt fantastic, until the very end of practice when I realized "oh crap I only have sunscreen on my face and neck from my moisturizer" Normally this would not matter so much, on normal years I would of had a base tan, and may have gotten a little rosy on the chest and tops of my shoulders which would have faded within 2 days or less...... I have no base at all, and no sunscreen on skin that has not seen sun in 2 years is not a nice sight! ( meanwhile the little bit of 15 spf that is in my moisturizer kept my face and neck nice and protected and I now have a nice pretty gold tone going on my face shows you how pasty the rest of me is!)

Can I just tell you my wrists, tops of my shoulders and chest look like a fire engine! and the reason I use that association is simple.... I feel like I am on fire! even when I was a lifeguard and out in the sun for 8 hours I never felt sensitivity like this! it is so tight and tender!

I will definitely be returning to my controversial  routine next year, and even some of this year, because this incident as educational as it was, has now left me with a beater tank tan line  and knowledge that I was pretty genius with my sun conditioning  in previous years! Oh and also I will be buying sun block to carry in my purse as well as in the diaper bag!! :)

I also feel very lucky I didn't wear shorts to practice this week! The little sun I did get last summer did not include my legs! They are pretty much translucent at this point and you could call me Casper's twin!