Lost in the Supermarket

I have a bit of a tan right now, the result of playing tourist with my parents and being out in the sun for more than three minutes at a clip. It’s nice, sort of, being tan, and it makes me long for some sort of outdoor exposure, but considering the last time I went out in the sun, my nose disappeared into the purple Barney-like entity that was my face, and wild peeling ensued for several weeks afterwards, despite my naturally olive complexion. So ah, sun. No thanks.

There was once a time, when I was in college and cruising through some kind of wild sorority rage, I became addicted to tanning – this was Syracuse, after all – and turned precisely the shade of a fresh-picked carrot, except for my white-rimmed eyes which were protected from the bright light from the tanning booth-issued goggles. My preternaturally orange color prompted a very nice, if overzealous, pledge-slash-neophyte named Shih-nan to report me, and a few others, to the standards committee in an attempt to stage a sorority tanning intervention. Our next chapter meeting involved a lot of circumspect discussion about skin cancer and tanning (*cough* Jonna *cough*) while Shih-nan glared at me pointedly, announcing that “SOME PEOPLE ARE ORANGE THIS CAN’T BE GOOD FOR YOU.”

Many years after college, Shih-nan would work for me, and lo, it was very tempting to chastise her every time she came in with a little color, but I resisted.

Other than that, hi! My parents are here! Life is awesome! Except really, there isn’t a whole lot of sarcasm there, as things are quite perky here, for the most part, as I really like spending time with them, and we’re having fun, and it’s nice to see them. That is, except for a dinner with my in-laws that required some lubrication of the Tanqueray variety that was, sadly, sorely needed, because I was a wreck in manner of oh-my-God-I-am-so-stressed-about-this-because-what-if-it-sucks kind of way, which then became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, meaning I have no idea how it actually went, all I know is that I was supremely uncomfortable, and maybe a little un-sober.

And oops, look at that, I have to run, because my dad, he is addicted to the Internet, and unlike two geeks like us, he doesn’t travel with a laptop. He is, however, enamored with the fact that we have wireless instead of dial-up, and has commented more than once how miraculous it is that THE INTERNET IS ALL AROUND US, and also, shockingly fast.

*The Clash. I have nothing that makes any sense.

13 comments May 8th, 2007