Tanning is Suppose to be Relaxing….Right?

I am pale.  As stated in previous posts, you know that I am almost as pale as the Twilight Vampires and that if you look at me too long you might go blind from how pale my skin is, it’s abnormally pale.  But in any event, I am use to it and I have embraced my paleness...not an easy feat in the society we live in.  Supermodels are tan, movie stars are tan, heck even those Twilight Vampires are Tan (they put make up on, and a lot of it, to look pale…and usually the make up artiest do a bad job of it because it always looks globbed on their skin).  I am the total opposite of tan. 

Well Bebe and I have decided to go to Jamaica on our honeymoon…YAY!  I was uber excited for this trip, because I haven’t had a real vacation since starting college 6 years ago.  And I haven’t been out of the country is almost 4 years!  I say “was” because it then hit Bebe and I that we need to be kind of tan to be able to go to the islands and not burn to a crisp our first day.  I would go from being so pale it hurts your eyes to lobster red in a few short moments.  Bebe is tanner then I am, but he is still pretty fair, so he would only get like a little red, but still it would probably be uncomfortable.  I didn’t want to go on our honeymoon and only spend a few minutes in the wonderful world on that island only to have the next 6 days spent inside in pain and agony, with my skin pealing away with the curtains closed.  I want to go out and be on the beach, see the tropical areas around, and hang out in the pool. 

The only way to remedy this, would be to go tanning.  And because I don’t like outside much, also talked about in previous posts (remember there are bugs and stuff outside!), it is harder for me to get a tan at all.  So we, Bebe and I, had to sign up to get a base tan at a tanning salon.  We went after church one day, thinking it wouldn’t be as busy, and that we (meaning I) would be much calmer considering we just got out of church.  I have never tanned in a tanning bed before in my life.  I am horribly claustrophobic and even being in an elevator can freak me out.  (Side note: I didn’t ride in elevators until I reached high school, and that was only because I would try and make a game out of it to get my mind off of the closed space and the walls getting closer and closer) So going tanning in a small space that closes in on top of you isn’t my cup of joe! 

When we got to the salon the lady showed us around and told us about the packages that we could do, after looking at me, though she told me I would need to come in a lot and that they would start me in a bed that tans the layers underneath your skin and that they had a special bed that was wide open for people like me who were really pale and really claustrophobic. 

I looked at the bed and it looked like a four poster bed without the canopy and instead of a bed it was glass with lights all around it.  I could do that, surely!  We bought out package and we went tanning.  She gave us 5 minutes to get undressed and slobber the lotion all over ourselves.  In my room I was freaking out that I wouldn’t have enough time and I know the lotion probably wasn’t rubbed in all the way.  I quickly put on my goggles to protect my precious vision and then laid on the bed. 

This bed, unlike most tanning beds, is open so when it starts up it sounds like an airplane taking off!  I freaked out! Oh my goodness what have I gotten myself into.  I was so worried that something bad was going to happen while I was laying there with my eyes closed that I opened them.  OH MY GOODNESS everything was purple!  That made me freak out even more. 

I started to hyperventilate a little. I squeezed my eyes shut.  All I could think about was he room was smaller, the contraption was open, but the room was small.  I could feel those walls come closer and closer to me, and I almost couldn’t take it.  I had to do this though, I had to get a stupid tan so I won’t stupidly boil when we go on our honeymoon!  I had to get through this!  So I started to pray that I could finish the full 8 minutes that I was given and started to sing Ava Maria (no one could hear me, the tanning bed was SO loud, well at least I hope no one could hear me…) and that seemed to help get me through it.  Once the bed shut off, I was kind of scared to open my eyes.  The room was quite and the lights were off.  I quickly got off the bed and put my clothes back on.  I looked at my hands, and they were shaking.  I had done it!  I had laid through the full 8 minutes of tanning without freaking out so badly that I would need to have shut off the bed early.  I had tanned for the first time!  That’s when it hit me…I would have to go and do this over and over until the first week of Aug…I started to shake more!