Like a turtle to his balcony
◊ I'm back froim Kaua'i, and I've got a tan (including a tan line on my butt from the bikini — yowza!) which should be a shock to anyone who knows my standard level of paleness. I'm spending the day reconnecting with friends and family — two hours on the phone? Damn! Didn't know I could do it — and now I need to take a shower and figure out if the dark brown on my feet is a deep tan or just another layer of grime on my hippie feet.
I am obsessed with this tan. I think it's the first allover tan I've had since I was 11. I'll probably hit up Google to learn as much as I can about the feeding and maintenance of tans so I can preserve it as long as possible, and I'll hold off re-dyeing my hair for a bit so I can keep the sun-bleached look I've got going.
It's all about tricking people into thinking I'm athletic. "What, this tan? Yeah, it does that every summer. I guess it's all the time I spend surfing and rescuing baby sea otters and wrestling with sharks and having beach parties where everyone has big hair and dances to 50s rock 'n' roll. Between that, the lacrosse, the horseback riding and the naked mountain biking ... yeah, I get a little brown."
Bonus: Turns out I didn't put on five pounds eating my head off while on vacation. This means my jeans will still be baggy and I can show off the dramatic tan line running across my hips a few inches below the dimples on my lower back. I should probably get a belt — my aunt was laughing at me for compulsively hitching up my jeans while I lugged groceries into the house for my mom. She's a very cool lady, but sometimes I get the feeling she's very, very amused at my taste in fashion.
Anyway. Vacations are great, but I especially love coming home to my friends and family. I also like being rid of that slight nagging feeling that I've only got X days of vacation left so I should be snorkeling and hiking and learning about reef fish and sending postcards instead of shopping at thrift stores and knitting.
If only I could knit and snorkel at the same time.