I think I'll Stick to Spray Tans

TWO BLOG POSTS IN ONE DAY?? I know, I must not be feeling very well.

Here's the deal. Graham and I are headed to the beach tomorrow (Myrtle--the land of the 80's spray tanks and where anything neon is still cool--so excited!!) and I wanted to get what those bronze people call a "base tan" going on before we left. Well, for those of you that know me, I'm extremely fair skinned. Not like the pretty porcelain type, but the more red, freckly type. SO, I'm already predisposed to skin cancer, but I figured hey! Why not go a few times...it can't hurt, right? I admit it. Graham, Mom, everyone else who told me not to go...you win. Apparently people can be allergic to UV rays in concentrated amounts. OF COURSE I AM. Who knew? About the fourth time I went (and I was getting excited because I was turning a slightly darker shade of pale at this point) I was in the tanning bed and it felt like little prickly needles were poking me all over my body. So as soon as it started I immediately got up and out of the tanning bed right? Wrong again. I'm extremely competitive (I'm sure this will be my downfall at some point) and saw that there were only 3 minutes remaining on my time--anyone can stand a little pain for 3 minutes, right? It didn't get too much worse when I was in there, but then about 2 hours later I had this horrible horrible pain literally all over my body. Like burny/itchy/shaky...you get the picture. After doing some research (I only got 20 minutes of sleep that night) I found out this is actually a pretty common problem and a lot of people end up going to the emergency room when they have this experience--I believe it! If I weren't so stubborn I might have gone just to get someone to tell me I was going to be okay eventually. This feeling was better in the morning but continued for about 3 days on and off. The weird thing is I don't react in the real sun so I guess we all know there's something a little off going on in those tanning beds. Don't do it! :)

NEEDLESS TO SAY...I gave up on the whole tanning idea and went for the sunless tanning experience earlier today. Much more pleasant :)