Thursday, April 23, 2009

Beauty Day


I need a beauty day. I'm going in to the city for a day at the spa - facial, pedicure, all that girly stuff. Nothing like sipping a glass of wine while sitting in a massaging lounge chair with my feet in a warm, bubbly little foot-sized jacuzzi, and having my toes pampered.

Yep, that's what I need. And blue stuff on my face. I don't know exactly what's in it, but that blue facial mask is way cool for the skin.

Know what else I've been doing?

I've been going to a tanning salon.

Can you believe it? Fair haired and fair skinned little me, whom swore she'd never tan again, has been in a tanning bed the past week. I just sort of thought that with me going out on a boat for a week soon...(and maybe even more if we either get it sold or moved down here to Mississippi real quick)... I figured I needed some color and getting my skin used to sun exposure. So I said to hell with skin cancer and hit the sunlamps.

I'm taking it slow, though. Just a few minutes each day, but I did over do it yesterday a bit, and I'm a little pink this morning, so I'm going to skip it today. I've got some good aloe gel stuff for after sun care, so I'll be fine. It's just pink heat on my skin, not really a burn. I've had much worse burns when I was 15 and lying out all afternoon with nothing but iodine and baby oil to protect me. God, we were so stupid back then. Tan and looking hot, but dumb as a red brick.

Funny how love makes you start to care about yourself again. The Captain has got me eating like a health food freak. My shopping cart at the supermarket was so dull. Fruits, veggies, soy milk, proteins, and vitamins. Oh, and wine. Gotta have the wine. But really, it's like I've been transplanted from California. Come to think of it, it does remind me of what I was like when I moved back from there.

And speaking of California, I remember The Wine Commonsewer had a good smoothie recipe on his blog a while back. I think I need to go dig that one up. Smoothies are my new favorite lunch these days.

18 comments:

smartass sob said...

Funny how love makes you start to care about yourself again.

Yes it does, doesn't it? About taking care of yourself: it may not have dawned on you yet, but you are in your forties now and you can no longer take your good health for granted. You gotta kinda work at it now to keep it.

BTW, about the tanning salon - any good dermatologist will tell you to stay the hell away from those places and out of the sun, too. A suntan is actually damaged skin; while it may or may not cause skin cancer at a later date, it will definitely age the skin - particularly a woman's face. I've seen that.

I've been sunburned lots of times in my life - some of them quite severely. Once as a kid I fell asleep under a drugstore-bought sunlamp that did a real number on my face. Another time I spent a day at the lake after I had already been sunburned - that got me actual bleeding sores on my back. The last time I went to the beach my legs got so burned I couldn't walk for three days. Yeah, I still go out in the sun, but not in the heat of the day if I can help it. I do wear a shirt and a hat. Sunscreen? No way with the humidity around here.

Aloe vera is great for sunburn relief and it actually seems to minimise the blistering and other damage. I once got blistered on the tops of my ears because I forgot to wear a hat out in a field. Aloe vera juice cleared it right up - from the plant itself, I mean. It's great for all kinds of burns. Okay, I'll hop down off the box now. ;-)

sasob

Chatelaine said...

"but you are in your forties now..."Dang, Smartass, I could so totally shoot you for that ;-)

I know tanning beds are not good for you, but at the same time, my skin has been looking downright pasty and unhealthy. I think a little vitamin D from sun, whether it's artificial or not, might be what I need. And I promise I'm not going to get a deep tan. I just want a little touch of golden color, that's all.

My best friend has had a deep tan for twenty years, and not to be snarky, but she looks ten years older than me, and I secretly kind of like that, because she still has her gymnast's body. >:-}

smartass sob said...

...and not to be snarky,...

Ha! That ain't snarky, sugar - that's catty. Meow. ;-) Thought you 'uz headed to town today?

sasob

TWC said...

...nothing but iodine and baby oil to protect me. God, we were so stupid back then. Tan and looking hot, but dumb as a red brick.Makin' me smile.

Thanks for the shout out, too.

TWC said...

Oops. Messed that one up. Let's try again (preview is not my friend)

.....nothing but iodine and baby oil to protect me. God, we were so stupid back then. Tan and looking hot, but dumb as a red brick.Makin' me smile.

Thanks for the shout out, too.

TWC said...

WT heck is up with Blogger?

I didn't mess that up at all. Blogger took out the spacing when it posted.

smartass sob said...

TWC, if you want a separation between your italicized stuff and the next line or paragraph, don't put your closing tag at the end of the italicized lines. Put it at the beginning of the next paragraph. Seems to be a new bug on Blogger.

sasob

TWC said...

I love the sun and it has definitely taken it's toll on my skin. I figured I was immune because I have good skin and plenty of natural oils. Then one day I was trying to get some stubborn dirt off of my feet in the shower when I realized that it wasn't dirt.

I was one of the very first in my generation to find sunscreen. Believe it or not, you had to ask the pharmacist. It was kept behind the counter. Called Pre-Sun. And I've been good about using sun screen but I've just plainly spent too much time in the desert sun.

Someone near and dear to my black and shriveled heart was told a few years ago that she better stay completely out of the sun for the rest of her life.

That's a bit of a wake up. For her anyway. :-)

TWC said...

That ain't the sun TWC, yer just getting old.

Col. Hogan said...

Didn't have to think much about sunburn when I was growing up. The sun couldn't penetrate the parka. But, we had to wear shades because of the bright snow.

I got my first set of RayBans when I was 12. My first sunburn when I was 22.


housin
rewoa

TWC said...

Thanks SA.

Parka! SmOL

Chatelaine said...

Smartass, I have been known to have my catty moments. I guess a girl just can't help some things. :)

Chatelaine said...

"Makin' me smile."Twc, you're such a perv sometimes ;-)

Chatelaine said...

I probably shouldn't be in the sun much the rest of my life myself, TWC, but I can't just avoid it forever! I'll be careful, but I need a little bit of color. Just a little.

Chatelaine said...

Col Hogan, I don't think I've ever had a real parka. I've had winter coats and things that were parka-styled, but not a real parka.

I do still have my first RayBans, though. I got some Aviators back in the 80s. I tried them on the other day for the first time in years. I wore those to many an outdoor rock concert back in the day.

TWC said...

Oh now LC, I'm crushed. It was *just* the idea of the baby oil and iodine concoction that made me smile.

I didn't realize that the tradition carried through to girls your age.

Chatelaine said...

"I didn't realize that the tradition carried through to girls your age."
I think that tradition lasted a little longer in the south than it did elsewhere. Southern women like to be tan, and they'll always choose the old tried and true ways over some new trendy fad. I think the first popular sun tan oil here was Panama Jack, which we started using my senior year of high school. Coppertone was for middle-aged moms protecting their babies. I remember my yankee cousins coming down from Ohio to visit us in the summers and lying out on the veranda, smoking those long brown cigarettes, and getting literally chocolate brown with iodine and baby oil. So naturally I copied them, because to 13 year old me they were so glamorously exotic. I bet there are still some girls around here who use iodine and baby oil.

TWC said...

I still know what girls smell like when they are drenched in baby oil and iodine.

and getting literally chocolate brown with iodine and baby oil.El Jeronimo de Crow's sister was so dark brown that we called her the Knee-Grow. :-).