My oldest brother is getting married a week from today. If you want the truth, I never thought he'd get married. This is quite a miracle. A wedding also means I get to go home in 2 days! I'm really excited to see my family and to be there for such a special occasion.

I'm a groomsmaid in the wedding - they're having bridesmen (Dominika's brothers) and groomsmaids (Isaac's sisters) instead of the other way around. Cute, right? Yeah. Anyway, so a few weeks ago I tried on my dress and realized it shows a lot of skin that hasn't seen the sun in a while: my legs below the knee and my arms up to the shoulders. I needed to fix that, obviously, because I can't be lookin' like a fool in the pictures. Especially since Dominika's family all has beautiful chocolatey smooth skin. I'm going to Mexico the day after I get back from Indiana, which would've been really great if it had been right before the wedding, since I'd have sunkissed Mexico skin. Not so.

I don't do the tanning bed and I'm too poor for a spray tan and I'm a little afraid of coming out orange like Ross from Friends. So I decided to go with some self-tanner. My mom's used it before and I've never thought she looked weird. So I found one, tried it out on my legs, and loved it! Instant color, not too extreme, and no skin damage. The problem then arose of my arms and chest, which were just as white as my legs. I can't be having tan legs and ghost arms. But if I put it on my arms, I've gotta put it on my chest. And if I put it on my chest, do I put it on my neck? And if it goes on my neck, how do I not put in on my face? Quite honestly, putting sunless tanner on my face is a scary thought. Conclusion: I don't know what to do.

Then the weather thought itself so kind as to help me out. As I mentioned previously, I'm training for a half marathon in about a month so I run outside a lot. The weather has been gorgeous lately, so I decided I'd just run in my tank top, get a little sun every time and I'd be set by April 1st. Yesterday was my long run - 12 miles, which took me 2.5 hours. When I got home, I spread a blanket on the grass and stretched and read my scriptures to soak up a few more rays. I'm figuring, it's March which is barely spring so a short time in the sun isn't gonna cut it. We are, after all, still quite a ways from the sun.

Last night as I was getting ready to go out, I noticed I had some tan lines. Yessss.... Then as I was in the shower, I noticed it was painful to run my loofah over my shoulders. Wait.... Then after I got out of the shower, I realized I'm a lobster. In my attempt to get just a little color so my arms and neck would match my legs, I burned my shoulders and chest. Score.

Here's to hoping it turns to a tan before Sunday but waits to peel until Monday.

In further get-myself-ready-to-look-good-in-wedding-pictures news, my roommate Whitney has been teaching me how to curl my hair with a straightener. My first reaction when I have a hard time with my hair is to get frustrated, make frustrated noises, slam whatever tool I'm using on the bathroom counter, and pull my hair up and out of my face, all the while cursing my uncooperative hair and my lack of hair styling ability. I'll admit, I was tempted to commence that frustration process several times while she was teaching me, but since someone else was in the room and I didn't want to lose face in front of my friend, I pretended to laugh about it, all the while seething inside.

I practiced again today, and I am happy to admit I did about two-thirds of it on my own! She had to help me with a few in the back and then she pretty much had to fix half of what I did on my right side, but if you were to look at my head from my left side, you'd think I was some sort of professional hair stylist.

Maybe I'll just always keep my left side to the audience and the camera. My left side's my good side anyway.