It’s Alright to be White

Today I feel like this.


Hey- I kinda look like that, too!

Once upon a time there was a young…ish girl that wanted a golden summer tan…ish. Try as she might however, she was blessed with the skin of a redhead and she could not accomplish such a feat. Alright, done with the storytelling lingo- I want the feeling of a nice tan. I’ve sat out in the sun in the back yard and tried to soak up some sun but all I seem to get is freckles. I used to think that if I freckled enough, eventually they would all hook together and I would have one massive, tan, freckle. As the years have passed I’ve had no such luck, and the freckles that have merged together now make large dark marks that make me look like I have a big cancerous face. I could not accept defeat!

I wanted to give it one more try- the trip to California! That’s totally the best place to do it! Sun, surf, Disneyland! Woot, woot!! I wanted to return home with a beautiful, healthy tan, but my luck wasn’t so. Turns out, we picked a crappy week to get any sun in California, although it made Disneyland bliss. It was overcast and around 70-80 degrees each day with little sun. Thankfully though, when we went to the beach, it was warm and the sun came out every once in awhile. Now, I know what it’s like to get a beach burn. I went to the beach once when I was younger and burned the crap out of my thighs, and ever since then, I swore that I would always wear sunscreen at the beach , because even on overcast days, you can be fried like and ant, and I took such precaution. I like using the spray sunscreen because with the rub on stuff, I always feel like I’m missing somewhere and the spray gives me more insurance. I sprayed it on and waited for it to dry, and in the time that we were there, I applied it three times. Adequate, right?

SO WRONG!!!

I felt okay until we got back to our hotel room and I started feeling dizzy and sick. I took a shower to get rid of the sand and when I got out, I almost fell right back in. The place where my straps had been looked like two giant neon glow sticks on my skin. I wasn’t sunburn red, I was sunburn purple. Within a few hours, my skin had blistered entirely on my face, neck, shoulders and back. I rubbed so much Aloe Vera into my skin that it wouldn’t take anymore, but my skin was still burning hot. It was impossible to sleep that night, and we drove home the next day and with every bump on the road, I could feel a blister pop. By the time we got back into Utah, my face was smoldering and it hurt to smile. My face is looking better, although, it is somewhat terrifying. I don’t get sympathetic looks anymore when I am out in public, and I don’t have little women at the store stop me and tell me that I have the worst sunburn that they have ever seen and that I should take a bath with vinegar, either. I think I am a few days away from looking like myself again, well, at least my face, I can’t say that my shoulders and arms won’t look the same again for quite awhile. My husband is good enough to help me laugh about the way I look when I want to cry. He’s not subtle at all- he only chases me around the apartment singing songs from Phantom of the Opera- which inspired me to write this blog.

The moral of this story for me is that I have come to the realization that, in my case, it is much better to have healthy, white skin than dark, spotty, blistered skin. This is also why I have decided that my new motto is –White is Alright!!!