I don't tan...I blush.

Just came in from laying on the chase lounge in my sister's backyard/patio in sunny, absolutely beautiful, perfect temperature San Diego!

I went to the beach yesterday with lil' Audrey Anne and got a little pink. So today I told myself, "Only 30 minutes, while the carrot cake is baking." I stuck to my guns. I came inside and all my glorious freckles have emerged. Of course, they have much more potential for enunciating themselves as the summer grows on, but they have made their debut.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to say to me and my sister, "Looks like you stood behind a cow too long." And my mom would tell us we had "angel kisses". I hated, I mean hated, my freckles as a kid and adolescent. I would cover them up with gobs and layers of makeup. But as time goes on and has a way of doing, you grow to like yourself. And as more time goes on you actually begin to love and delight in certain things about yourself. I am that way when it comes to my freckles. I can't wait to see them when summer time comes.

In high school, my best friend Hilary Lyle and I would try to get tan (the key word being, try). When you grow up in California, it is just expected that you will be brown, like a sun baked surfer. But me and Hilary could not achieve that bronzed look. So we placated ourselves by saying, "We blush!" And somehow that felt better.

I hope Audrey after coming in from playing on a summer afternoon will have lovely angel kisses scattered across her forehead and dotting her nose. And I hope even more she grows to love them sooner than I did.