Tan lines

Have you seen those ads that are supposed to make you aware of skin cancer, melanoma and such? They're really gross as they show what it looks like when your skin cells get brown and then pop into your blood stream. They certainly get the point across- at least until the next commercial featuring gorgeous, thin, and very tanned women comes on.

Here's my deal: I live in New Zealand, but I'm from Colorado, and as a college kid I get three months off during the summer. Except for the New Zealand summer is the Colorado winter. Or at least part of it (the last snow hits in early June, and the first in September...a long winter). So basically, for the last two years, I've had nothing but back-to-back winters. No room for a tan.

This summer, however, I'm spending my three months in Australia. Perth, WA, to be exact. And it's a lot hotter, and a lot drier than NZ. Today it got up to 39 degrees. And as an American, I don't have a valid work visa, so I spend my days...you guessed it...beside the pool in the backyard. I spend twenty minutes on my front and twenty minutes on my back, I get in the water regularly and I don't wear any sunscreen. Lucky for me, I don't really burn (thank you, Mexican genes).

But the thing about laying on your back and your front, is that you tend to miss the sides. I'm really not sure how this happens, but it does. If you look at me from the front or back, you'd say, "That girl looks good", but from the side you'd say, "That girl looks like an oatmeal cream pie."

So that's my dilemma: not the struggle of my conscience, to tan or not to tan, but the fear that I'll spend my summer striped. Laying on my side on a deck chair is just too uncomfortable! When I figure out a solution for this, I'll let you know. Signing off...

Little Debbie