So, after a glorious week off, I’m back to reality. It’s freezing here in Austin and I’m not exaggerating. It’s really freezing here, talk of potential icing – which makes being back from 80 and sunny weather a bit harder to take.
I had a very relaxing time in Mexico. Surprisingly, I got no resistance to bringing anything less than SPF50 for the hubby. I used SPF70 for pretty much the entire time I was there. You can barely tell I was even at the beach for a week. And I’m glad for that. I was able to nap in the shade at the beach and still feel like I wasn’t missing out on anything related to a beach vacation.
However, we did see FAR too many people who did not use sun protection. Seeing all those sunburns made me cringe. I get that many people want to get a tan to show off that they escaped the lousy weather back home. But those dark red skin tones are not attractive. Even the really dark tans gave me the willies. And don’t get me started on the people who started to resemble leather. Is it because of my history with skin cancer? Shockingly, even my husband, who once stated he wished he was Brazilian so he could tan darker shades said that the super tan people freaked him out. Progress, right?
I was really relieved to know that I can still go to the beach, get the same relaxing zen feeling from listening to the waves breaking, and completely avoid sitting in the sun. And it wasn’t a big deal to say to the hubby, “Hey, I’ve gotten 10 minutes of direct sunlight, I’m going to go sit in the shady spot under the palapa now”. I think I can actually keep beach vacations in my life, and as long as I have my high-strength SPF, a good cover-up, and a shady spot to hide, I’m going to be able to enjoy them without freaking that I’m making melanoma every second.
And I have an awesome excuse to go buy the cute sun hats…