Sunny Days

I love summer, and this summer has been a particularly great one! Craig and I are just finishing up a long weekend together, which is an extremely rare occassion for us. I work every 2nd weekend, and I usually end up working one of my weekends off, so I really only have one weekend off a month. Also, I always seem to work long weekends because if I actually have the sat/sun off, then I have to work both the friday and monday nights (just how my rotation goes). Don't get me wrong, I actually quite like shift work, the thought of working mon-fri, 9-5, makes me want to poke my eyes out. But, unless it's planned, Craig and I just don't get too many weekends off together, like most normal people.

With some careful planning, we just enjoyed 3 entire days off together! I made Craig spend a lot of time with me (A LOT!), but he survived it because I let him sleep in while I got up at the crack of dawn to do my various training things. We went to Sylvan Lake for a day, we dusted off our cowboy boots and hats and went stampeding, and we had a great time at our Church's stampede breakfast. Almost too much fun for one weekend, I'm exhausted!!! A highlight, having a famous family member has it's perks, Craig and I got to enjoy best possible complimentary seats for the Calgary Stampede Grandstand show Saturday night, which I thought was extremely well done! Leon, Craig and I indulged in some of our favorite treats too (but we made a pact that what happens at Stampede... stays at stampede), then we felt sick for the rest of the night after someone had a crazy idea to go on the "Drop of Doom". Calgarians generally try to avoid stampede, so I kind of felt like a tourist in my own city.

The real reason for this blog is that I have a new challenge for myself. I'm going to make it public, which will force me to at least attempt to stick with it. I HATE not completing something (had to pull out of a marathon once because of a fractured tibia, just about killed me!), doesn't necessarily matter how well I do, but if I make a goal for myself, I need to at least put in my best effort. This goal is going to be very challenging for me, so I'll need the accountability. I am going to commit to avoid the sun, wear sunscreen whenever I am outside, become a shade-lover, and make a much bigger effort to protect myself from the harmful effects of the sun.
Obviously, one could see how this could be very challenging for me, for a number of reasons. I spend a significant part of my day outside, in the sun, for hours at a time, and generally it's ideal to be wearing tank tops and shorts (as in, biking and running). I also have skin that just doesn't burn, ever! It's very weird because I have extremely light eyes, and blond hair (natural, obviously), which would generally be paired with fair skin that burns easily. I guess I have my moms genes, we can be outside for hours on end, we never need sunscreen, at most, we might have pink cheeks for an evening, but it's a nice glowing tan by the morning. It doesn't really help that my half-jamaican husband is sort of in the same boat (never burns... ever). But most of all, I just love a tan, it makes me feel alive, my skin glows, I feel like I look like I have so much more life in me.

Recently my dad found a small spot on his forehead that was diagnosed as Basal Cell Carcinoma. Basal Cell Carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, 3 out of 10 caucasians will experience this in their lifetime. Sun light will cause DNA damage in the basal cell of skin, resulting in mutations (aka tumors, carcinogens, cancer). Luckily, Basal Cell Carcinoma is extremely easy to treat (cut out the problem area), survival rate is 99%, and it almost never spreads to organs, nonetheless, it's still skin cancer. My dad and sister are red-heads (well...my dad was a red head, until he started paying for Alison and my university tuition...now grey), extremely fair-skinned, they could even get burnt if they sit too close to me from the UV radiating from my body (yes, that sensitive!). This is what a day at the beach looks like for Alison and I (hahahahaha!!!):

My dad's and my sister's effort for healthy skin is very admirable. They are concious about sun damage because they have to be, but I suppose that makes you more passionate about something. Maybe my skin is skin that can withstand sun damage, and maybe I will never be the person who has to get spots and moles chopped out of my body... But, I think I'd rather not risk it, I rather not know either way. Like everything (drinking alcohol, coffee, eating chocolate, sitting too close to a TV), there is a ton of research about sun-damage and how truly harmful it is. I really believe in science/medical research, it would be foolish of me to disregard this. I really care about my health in certain areas and I'd really like to make more of an effort in this capacity.

In my dad's case, I am fully confident that his issue will be completely resolved when he has his problem area removed. His extremely vigilant effort in this area will also keep him for a reoccurance, he should become a sun-hat model as a career after retirement (as he is never seen without one on these days). Also, on a positive note, statistically speaking, only 1 of my immediate family members will have an experience with cancer. I'm going to go ahead and consider this experience as my "1-in-5", meaning, let's just hope statistics are right and my family is done with cancer. It's nice of my dad, taking one for the team.

So this is my new goal. I'm heading to the store to buy my first bottle of sunscreen, it's almost exciting! You can keep me accountable if you want, or at least give me a glare if you find me secretly catching some rays unprotected.