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I am a stay at home mom who is raising twins. One of my guys has type 1 diabetes and one does not. I am writing this blog to unite type 1 parents or twin parents. Comment on my posts or in the "what's your high?" and "what's your low?" to join the community of parents just trying to do the best we can!

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7/25/12

spray tan

 

                                  

Ok, time for a funny moment.

I am 25% Norwegian. Therefore, I have pale skin. In the winter months, I look especially translucent. I am proud of my pale heritage except for one time of the year. Bathing suit season... Dum,dum,dummmm.... Yes, like 95% of the world's population, with the exception of those who work out and those who walk on a runway, I hate bathing suit season.

 

I was complaining one day about this very topic, when my friend said, "Tan fat looks better than white fat. Why don't you try a spray tan?"

 

I had done a spray tan a couple of years ago and I liked the way it looked. Sitting in the hot sun, wondering the whole time if this is the moment  that you are getting skin cancer, is not my idea of fun. Lying out in the sun, for me, is like Chinese water torture. The whole time I am lying in the sun, I obsess over the fact that I probably giving myself cancer, while I am burning my skin. I never actually tan. I burn. Then I peel. Let's face it, Norwegian people are not known for their awesome tans!


 

Plus, every time I go in the sun I get a new "beauty mark" (i.e. a gross mole)By the way, whoever called these things beauty marks? Thanks anyway. If they really were beautiful, would be walking on a runway by now.  I will just keep it real and call them moles.

 

Another reason I do not like lying out in the sun is the sunscreen. I mean, who really knows which one is the healthiest? Lately, they have labeled them all as unsafe. Who knows?

 

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I went to a tanning place. You enter a dark dressing room and then a recording tells you to hold your breath, just as a blast of cold liquid is sprayed on your naked body, causing you to gasp while inhaling the liquid into your lungs! What is this liquid anyway? Probably more cancer-causing chemicals! Then you are told by the recording  to turn around and subject yourself to the same torture again.





 The only reason I subjected myself to the process is because I am an efficient seeker of beauty. The whole thing was over in five minutes and I was on my way. Sticky, albeit, but on my way. No sweaty beaches, no chemical sunscreen, no sunburn and no sitting in some dumb salon pretending to care if I am wearing the latest fashionable item. Efficient beauty is how I like it.  So what if I spent the next couple of days smelling like vegetable oil! I was happy to have a "healthy" glow.

 

So this year, I took my friend's advice and made an appointment to acquire a healthy glow yet again. This time, however, I decided to go to a tanning place that uses a real person to spray it on. I thought this would be better than the black dressing room with the recording. Plus, I thought maybe she could paint some tight ab muscles on me. Lol!

 

On the day of the appointment it started raining. I brought the boys with me to the salon and made them sit in the waiting room. I went into the spray tan room. No black dressing room today, it was  more like a doctor's office. It was better than the black dressing room, although the lighting  was fluorescent and made the atmosphere somewhat clinical.  Standing naked in this light was anything but (pun intended) flattering. I was told I could choose to leave my underwear and bra on, but she said most people just leave their underwear on and bra off, so they don't get tan lines on top. I did just that.

 

The twenty year old perky (of course) spray tan girl  walked in. Although  she was actually very professional and nice, I wished they  had hired someone more like Maude from the Golden Girls TV show to do the job. I didn't  enjoy having to get naked in front of someone as young and perky as (let's just call her) "Tiffany".  You get the picture!  

 

But, I needed to "tan the fat", so I sucked it up. I cracked jokes to distract "Tiffany" from my 41-year-old white, peanut butter and jelly loving body, which was now shining under clinical lighting.  But who was I fooling! It was really embarrassing! But, I just kept my head held high and acted like this was perfectly normal. She told me to stand forward with my arms in the air while she sprayed, then with my arms down.  There were a myriad of different positions.  My favorite was when she told me to face away from her and  sort of bend forward, so I wouldn't get a streak of tan under my butt... OMG! Where is the black dressing room with the recording???

 



Despite the humiliation, once she finished I was thrilled. I was so happy to get it all over with in about 20 minutes. Done. Check! The boys were still patiently waiting in the room that was just outside the door. When I came out with my newly tanned skin, Zeke  looked at me  and said "Mom, did that lady paint you orange?" Oh, God!

 

As we started to leave, I looked outside.   It was now pouring. I do mean buckets. Hard, huge raindrops with wind. The "Tiffany" girl told me to take her umbrella, cover myself, go to the car, then pull  towards the door and she would run out to get the umbrella. I told her I would park close so she  wouldn't get wet. HA!

 

The minute the boys and I got outside, we got hit from every angle. I was struggling to determine which angle the rain was coming from, but I was getting pelted from all angles. As for the boys, they were on their own. Normally, I would cover them and sacrifice myself, but not today little people! Run! is all I said to them

 

Finally, we get into the car. I kept one arm out of the car in order to close the umbrella.  It was getting pelted by the rain . Because my hands had lotion on them and were slippery I was having difficulty closing the umbrella. Closing it took  at least 45 seconds.  In the middle of it all, I dropped my keys almost under the car! Now  I had to expose my entire upper body to the wind and rain  in order to retrieve  the keys. I  finally got the keys, finally closed the car door and then looked at my arm. The spray tan was dripping down my arm. It was like bad mascara in a horror movie from the seventies! My tan was ruined! I tried to mop it up with an old napkin I found in the car.  But like any paint job, once you start touching things up the whole thing just looks worse.  I returned to where "Tiffany" was waiting for her umbrella and I tell her my tan is ruined. She asks me to come back in so she can re-do my arms.

 

Once I got in and took off my shirt, I realized the rain had soaked all the way through my shirt. I was as spotted as a cheetah! I pulled up my pant leg, same thing. Cheetah legs. Ugh!

 

No! These gross feet are not mine, but mine looked like these! 



She told me to use the  baby wipes that were on the counter and wipe off all of the tan! She would then re-spray me. Omg!

 

So, I did. I should have counted how many blessed baby wipes it took to wipe it all off. Fifteen minutes later she returned to my mostly-naked, half-spray-tanned, wet-haired, hair net wearing self! Seriously.




 Guys, if you had any fantasies about two hot chicks spray tanning each other,hold on to that vision, because it truly was not the reality. 








This is what I was imagining...




This is what It was like...



Despite all that happened, I was glad I did it. My funny friend was right, tanned fat did look better than white Norwegian fat!


4 comments:

Cathy E. said...

Shari - funny story! Thanks for sharing! My sister in law did a spray tan for a wedding earlier this summer. She let it dry the recommended timeframe, etc. We went to the beach the next day, she went swimming and came out of the water and her tan was gone.

Lacy said...

haha Thanks for sharing. I am of Finnish blood and also am clear. I used to get spray tans from Spray Chic in Farmington HIlls. That girl did an AWESOME job, she was a MOM, and not perfect. I LOVED my tans. They never looked orange and were always even and beautiful. So, I moved up here... bought a groupon for a place in Birmingham. 18 year old "Tiffany" sprays me after promising I wouldn't be orange. WORST TAN EVER I was completely orange like an Oompalumpa and uneven all over. All spray tans are NOT equal! haha

Shari said...

Lacy, clear! Ha! You are so funny. Thanks for sharing!

Shari said...

Cathy, that stinks so bad! Hope she at least he fun at the wedding! Thanks for sharing.