Distracted By Tanners!

I always feel extra bitter towards the tanning bed lovers on the weeks where I have big procedures, scans, and treatment. I always get the urge to walk up to them, flick them in the forehead, and scream, "LOOK AT WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO YOURSELF!"

However, I am far too polite for that.

I was walking through the grocery store the other day when I saw a young girl, maybe 20 years old, who I remember from the private school I attended years and years ago. Boy, she was TAN! Since we are friends on Facebook, I figure she has an idea of what is going on with me. I do tend to babble about it a lot...(Hey, people can either learn from my lesson or they can ignore me!) We made direct eye contact. I smiled. She looked at her feet. Maybe she hoped I would not notice her fake & bake lifestyle...Or honestly, maybe she does not care in the slightest bit what I think of her...whichever!. ;-)

Anyway----After seeing another young girl today, who I know for a fact is 5 years younger than my great 24 years, I reached the conclusion that tanning bed lovers not only look unhealthy to me now, they also look OLD! These beautiful girls look so aged and damaged! What about leathery skin is attractive? I understand liking the idea of a "healthy glow" but someone feel free to explain to me why people choose to help their skin become SO unattractive.

And for the record, I always thought leathery skin was fugly...even before I got diagnosed with Stage III melanoma!

I wish I could take these same girls on a tour of "Hotel Melanoma" (Sorry, Rich, you came up with the best name!) Let them go with us to hear the doctors tell us our cancer has spread, watch the doctors avoid eye contact while they share the statistics, observe the doctors stabbing us with a scary needle in the left side of our neck to check to see if the "suspicious" area is a tumor, to be cut on, stared at, and treated like a lab rat. Maybe then the tanning bed time would be eliminated from their lives.

I sincerely hope their tanning bed obsession is not something they end up regretting, but with all of the new evidence that shows the dangers of tanning, I may have a hard time finding sympathy. We all think it will not happen to us. I guess that is why smokers still smoke even knowing it leads to lung cancer...

Maybe I am bitchy today...

Or maybe my anger towards tanning bed lovers is just the distraction I needed today.