Ow...Ouch...OUCH!!!

Redlaw is a really fitting name for me now, and not in the way that you might expect. I am currently a bright shade of flourescent pink rather than being my normal white self. Why? Because I thought it would be positively brilliant to go to Bear Lake today and lay out for 3 hours without any sunscreen. Why is this brilliant? Because my mother has been nagging me for the last couple of months to get a tan or something so that I would match the rest of the wedding party for Younger sister #1's ceremony.

See, while I have embraced my whiteness and, in fact, adore the fact that you can't see me if I stand in front of a white wall, my mom and sisters have taken a different route to self-acceptance...they have baked themselves into looking like Africans. Normally, I don't care that they are all 20 shades darker than any known member of the extended family but now I do because if I have to listen to my mom bitch about my looks or my haircolor or really anything at all again, I am going to shove a fork in my ear, in hopes of rupturing the eardrum and finally finding some peace and quiet.

But rather than give up my already failing hearing, I decided to go ahead and give myself skin cancer and wrinkles because I'd rather deal with those problems than deal with my mom's incessant nagging. I do tan....it's just a very painful process that involves a good burning first. Since I am petrified of tanning beds ever since that sorority ordeal in college (I'm scared I'm going to get locked in a bed), the only real way for me to tan is to actually go out in the daytime, something I usually avoid at all costs. And now I remember why. I am burnt to a crisp. And it hurts and I'm tired.

However, aside from carrying out my mother's plot to kill me in my youth, I did have a wonderful time today at Bear Lake - my roomie KT, one of her friends, and I enjoyed ourselves immensely which is not hard to do when you're surrounded by scenic nature and good friends. Bear Lake itself is a stunning place to go and the ride out is pretty easy on the eyes as well - here's some pics to prove it:

This is a shot of the canyon we drove through to get to Bear Lake.

My roomie as seen by the rear-view mirror.

No group of photos is complete without a shot of at least one of my feet....

Coming down the canyon towards what else? Bear Lake!

Bear Lake from the road...

and again.