So it's no secret that I'm not a fan of going to the beach. And if you need to know my reasons, you can refer to this post written many, many moons ago.
But it's not the moon I want to talk about here. It's the sun.
The angry, angry sun.
Now the sun itself may not be mad at everyone, mind you, but it sure has taken a disliking to me. Ever since my onset/flare of Sjogren's Syndrome this past Spring, I cannot tolerate even two minutes of sun exposure without turning bright red and rashy in spots. In fact Drip Dry himself noticed it when we stopped on a road trip and my arms had this reaction just walking from the car to the rest stop.
And then I knew it.
I had developed a severe sun sensitivity.
Now when Trigger was first sick with Lupus (and the Spin family was a normal beach-going family) her rheumatologist insisted time and time again that she could not go out in the sun. Although her skin did not immediately react when sunlight hit it, he was trying to avoid a flare which can sometimes be brought on by a sunburn. Now - being that I used the word normal in reference to the Spin family - I'm talking about a time which pre-dated the undun years . . . which is just another way of saying that my daughters where still young and under my control. So, when on vacation, Trigger and I would wave goodbye to the sun-worshipping members of the family and spend our time on more productive endeavors. Like shopping. . . or movie watching. . . or napping.
I grew to love this down time and so my fair, Irish skin never returned to the beach again.
Trigger - on the other hand - took a walk on wild side later in her teenage years and returned to sun bathing - her olive skin browning and tanning without so much as a hint of a burn - never experiencing a flare.
Maybe that's when Mr. Golden Sun began to show his displeasure with me. Who knows?
But, whatever the reasons, I have spent a large part of this particular summer over-itchy, over-clothed, and over-heated!
And, while I don't like the beach, there are many things I like to do in the sun: I love to go in a swimming pool . . .I love to sit on a deck sipping coffee. . . I like to feel the warm sun on my face. . .and I like to walk from my car into the grocery store without looking like I'm headed for an arctic exploration.
Over-done. . . that's what I am.
An undun-over-done. . . .
