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8/2/1999 Monday Listening: Telemann, trio sonatas Weather: A welcome respite from the recent heat wave. Temperatures only in the low 90s today and low humidity. Still no rain.
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White Like MeI noticed some small red blotches on Stephen's face last night. I think he got a little sunburned from our visit to the playground yesterday. I had coated both the boys with sunscreen, but they ran around and sweated so much in the heat, the sunscreen on Stephen's face must have sweated right off. I'm always diligent about sunscreening the boys, especially since they've inherited my coloring. I'm a fair skinned, blue-eyed blonde who never once tanned in her whole life. As my grandmother used to say, if the freckles on my arms would grow together, I'd have a heck of a tan. Instead, I remain a hopelessly white girl. When I was growing up, my skin's inability to turn brown in the summer was a source of embarrassment for me. All three of my sisters would eventually tan to a nice nut brown shade whereas I'd burn lobster red during each exposure to the sun, and then peel back down to my usual pale skin. Of course, back then my parents weren't aware of the damage caused by the sun's ultraviolet rays. I'm probably already at risk for melanoma since I had a few horrendous sunburns in my childhood. In my early twenties, I finally realized I would never tan, and so stopped trying altogether. I also began wearing sunscreen on my face every day to protect against aging. I still loved the idea of a tan, though, so when the new and improved self-tanning formulas hit the market a couple years ago, I began diligently applying lotions to my arms and legs. After a few disastrous experiments with formulas that turned my limbs a bilious, carroty orange, I finally found a brand that gradually gave me a nice, light bronze glow. Of course, the problem with the self-tanning route is that you have to apply the lotion evenly in order to avoid a piebald look, and you have to keep reapplying regularly or it will soon fade. Last year I just gave up. If the ghostly pallor of my bare legs appalls people, well, so be it. It's their problem, not mine. I have finally come to accept myself as a white woman.
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