FAIRy tale

Hello, my name is Beth Ann, and I am fair skinned.

There's no two ways about it. It takes an act of congress for my skin to deepen in color {naturally, it's approximately 3 shades darker than paper}. Unlike some redheads, I don't even freckle enough to look tan from a distance. The darkest I've ever been was the summer I got married, but that was after months of tanning {don't judge me - I will discuss in detail later}, a week in Jamaica and another week in Florida. Even at my wedding, one of the photographers commented, "It's so rare to see a peaches'n'cream bride these days."

Excuse me ma'am, but I KNOW you meant peaches'n'TAN...

I didn't really say that, I just smiled. And tried not to barf before I walked down the aisle, but that's another story.

Anyways, I could have rocked the 1800s, especially with a corset - whatever happened to those things? {Head's up: I was going to put a funny picture of a woman getting her corset laced back in the day as the token photo for this post. DO NOT GOOGLE CORSET LACING. very inappropriate. This post will go pictureless.}

Alas it is the 21st century, and I must play the hand I'm dealt. I have approximately every risk factor for skin cancer possible {yes, I've worn a t-shirt in place of sunscreen before ;)}, but there are two sides to the Sun Story. It's not all bad- Not even for those of us of a lighter variety.

A girls gotta have some vitamin D, for lots of reasons {decreased risk of several female cancers, better calcium absorption, stronger bones, etc}. Did you know you can only build bone until you're 30, and then after that all you can do is try to maintain? Yikes, right?

So today, I got some sun Redneck Riviera style on my back deck {sleeves rolled up, sipping a glass of ice water, and enjoying my Comprehensive Pharmacy Review book...it just don't get no better'n'at.}

The point: Fifteen to twenty minutes of sun three times a week is currently considered the appropriate amount of sun to get adequate vitamin D.

Did you know that already? Don't tell me if you did. Just let me think I brought valuable information to the table.

{Since I usually can't get that at home, I might go to a tanning bed but only for like 5 minutes. It's now officially recognized by the FDA as a carcinogen...like cigarettes are to lung cancer as tanning beds are to skin cancer. But I really don't go very much, and I feel like it helps keep me from burning when I do actually encounter sunlight, and burns increase your risk of skin cancer too, so it's really six-one-way-half-dozen-another, right? ;)}.