Happy Girl

Daughter: UGH! I'm so pale!
Mother: Probably because you haven't been to the tanning bed in so long

Daughter: UGH! I have pimples!
Mother: Probably because you haven't been to the tanning bed in so long.

Daughter: UGH! I've had the worst headache of my life for the past week straight. I think I should go to the doctor.
Mother: Probably because you haven't been to the tanning bed in so long.

My mother has a lover affair with the sun. I think she is convinced the sun makes EVERYTHING better. I, however, have not inherited this obsession, nor the melanin needed to make this obsession worth my while. I love being in the sun and if I get a tan I'm happy, but if I don't I'm still happy. Every time I go out in the sun, I find new freckles. I'm going to turn into one big freckle if I keep it up.

In 2003 I got this ridiculous sunburn. It hurt for weeks. One day in the shower I looked down and my stomach was covered in one, huge water blister. My entire stomach peeled so deep in my skin that some parts of it bled. In 2006, I went to the dermatologist to have a mole on my stomach examined and it got biopsied for being "suspicious". Thankfully, it was benign, but they left a gaping hole in my flesh where the mole used to be. That hole is now a beautiful keloid scar that will never go away. There is a treatment for it, but it involves a really long needle injecting some really weird liquid into the scar and it hurts like the devil. I've had 3 of these treatments and I still have the scar. Have I mentioned I hate the dermatologist? Keloid scars are common in African American and Hispanic communities, which is funny because I'm as white as white can be. I'll probably never be able to have any kind of extensive surgery without scarring, which is fun.

Moral of this blog: Wear sunscreen!