Things I Should Have Had Sunblock For

This weekend has already been the weekend of things I should have had sunblock for.

On a bit of a whim I decided late Thursday night that the best way to salvage the disappointment of being rained out of my 5k was to go to the Feist concert at Ravinia the next night. It's on my way home, so I bought a ticket (one of the last ones left) and just hopped off the train early on Friday night. I had myself a mini picnic before taking my seat in the pavilion. (Jason was a little perplexed that I'd done this, but wine, cheese and nibbles are just part of the Ravinia experience, even if you're just by yourself.) Since the sun was sinking as I lounged, I evaded too much sun damage on Friday.

The concert was really amazing, especially since Feist wasn't one of those artists that pussy foot around and play all the songs from the new album they're promoting before getting around to the tunes you know, late in the encore. The performance had an intriguing, haunting and poetic backdrop of moving silhouettes and shadows done by two women at the back of the stage. The profound stillness and depth of Feist's songs (like "Honey") were enhanced by watching the simple performance above her. (These are not my photos, but they give an illustration of the performance.)



Saturday morning I hit the water of Lake Michigan with a friend for my first kayak experience. This was a lot of fun. I love lakes. I wanted to jump in and swim, but our little intro lesson hadn't included instructions on 'what to do if you find yourself outside of your kayak.'

The Evanston high school student who was our teacher was pretty minimal in his guidance. In a monotone mumble, "So, you do this to turn. Then you want to do this to go the other way. You guys want to paddle around and look at some stuff?"
We paddled around after our instructor left and mused at one point about how sunblock probably would have been a good idea. Yeah, it would have.

I am sporting the most elegant farmer's tan today, since I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt out on the water.

The kayak was open, giving me the look of wearing 'sunburn socks' all the way above the knee.

And if I were wearing a brown tank top today my arms would look like neopolitan ice cream. Brown - white (where my t-shirt sleeves covered me) - hot pink (where they did not.)

And by hot pink, I mean radiating heat, hot pink sunburn. Ouch, it hurts. Jason kindly took me to CVS for a big bottle of aloe.
I wish I could plunge my arms and legs into this ice cream to cool them down right now. My skin feels like it's shrunk two sizes around my limbs. Ouch, ouch.

I'd definitely like to go kayaking again though (with SPF 45.) My arms got a nice workout, and it was far more interesting than sitting on a weight machine at the gym.

(Top image via Etsy.)