Pink is the new Tan, right?

Ah, my beloved tan... this Northern existence has made you run away from me... please come back...

So yes, I'm back to going to the tanning bed, well, tanning booth. The fake-and-bake, the cancer vault. I do not like being pale, never have and never will. Living in Florida allowed me the luxury of getting real sun and a real tan as early as March. I remember too many St Patty's Days where I was laying on the beach and enjoying the sun - one year I remember getting drunk and absolutely burnt to a crisp with Scott and going home and passing out (ah the days of being childless). But I digress...

Now that I'm back up North it's back to paying for my tan and getting it at night, in a room that would make anyone claustrophobic go nuts. At least there's usually good music and I can dance my time away. Based on Jen's recommendation (she is really my ambassador to Pittsburgh), I got a membership to Hollywood Tans (http://www.hollywoodtans.com/index.asp). It's a nice place, clean and with all stand-up tanning booths (they also have the spray-on Mystic tan which I may do right before my trip to Jax).

So there are 3 levels of tanning... the HT42 booth is a max of 11 minutes and their lowest level of tanning - this is the one that I did 3 times last week with minimal pinkness and minimal results. The mid-range booth is the HT54. Today I decided to go into the strongest booth, the HT60. As a gift for buying a 3-month package in the HT42's they gave me 2 free weeks in the HT60 booths and that expires next Monday so I figured why not try it out. According to their website:
"HT60: The Ultimate 8-minute Tan
The HT60 is our fastest tanning booth. You'll have your beautiful base tan in only 3 to 4 sessions, with only 2% UVB allowing you to build your tan faster."

Well... I'm pink, I mean really pink. I wouldn't say red, just very very pink. I only went for 5 minutes but it was a very hot and intense 5 minutes. Tonight I will lotion up really good before bed and hope that tomorrow I don't wake up red. One thing's for sure... I won't be wearing a v-neck shirt to the office tomorrow. I don't need to give those nerdy engineers any more reason to stare at me! :)