I recently got a good giggle when someone asked me if my tan came from a tanning salon.  I. Live. On. Guam!  There literally aren't any tanning salons on this little island.  I just thought that was so funny..  I haven't been in a tanning bed in almost two years.  (Thank God!)  His next question was, "Oh, do you just lay out?"  Hahahahahahahaha!  I'm a full time Mommy to a 6 month old!  The precious few hours she spends napping each day are the only time I can get things done in my house.  If I took that time to tan.... Again, it just makes me giggle.

I have recently decided that I take issue with tanning beds, except when used for depression alleviation purposes.  If I lived somewhere that never had sun, I would probably own a tanning bed, or at the very least, one of those huge lamps that you sit under.  I need sunshine!  I couldn't live like my dear friend Celeste does, at the beautiful North Pole where there are weeks at a time of darkness.  No, thank you.  The thing she does for love (live there to be with her man) would be a deal breaker for me.

Now, back to taking issue with tanning beds... Why do we feel the need to be dark in the winter?  I'm guilty, too.  I tanned every fall and winter from the time I was 17 until I moved to Guam.  But why?  Light skin is beautiful!   Light skin is natural in the winter time!  I see my friends who are dark, and I don't get it.. Then I see people that I'm not necessarily friends with who are orange, and I want to laugh at them.  In fact, I do laugh at them, just not to their faces.

I don't get why we're all so vain.  Going to a tanning salon means actually paying for something that you can get for free outside.  Why not just wait until it warms up a little bit?  I know they make you feel better during the winter.. Like I said, I'm guilty, too.  I used to love the feeling of crawling in that warm bed when it was 30 degrees outside.  It was the best nap I could get in the winter!  But still.. why?

For the very first time in my life, I have a runner's tan.  The tan lines are huge on my shoulders and back.  It's not going to be very pretty in a dress, but I don't care.  I'm so proud that I've been spending time outside every day.  I'm showing my little girl the healthy way to have a glow to her skin.  (For the record, we both wear sun screen even though she spends 90% of the run in the shade of her car seat.)

I hereby vow to never pay for a tan ever again.  That is, unless Jason somehow talks me into moving to Bangor, Washington.  At that point I will probably have to purchase a tanning bed just to survive.