I need to get my first sunburn out of the way

Seeing as how it’s supposed to be 93 goddamn degrees in Philly tomorrow and my old swimsuit is getting ratty, I’ve had getting a new one on my mind for a while.

When I was probably 15 or so, my best friend and I were hanging out at the pool. I had only had pretty juvenile one-piece swimsuits up until that point, whereas she wore only bikinis. We were comparing and contrasting; I felt it was awkward to have 95% of your body on display, she felt like one-pieces made me look matronly.

She was very frank. “Look, we’re young; the closer to naked we have an excuse to be, the better we’re going to look.”

Obviously I’m paraphrasing, there, but the next suit I bought was a bikini. As soon as I got over the “OMG, I’m naked!” thing, I found that she was right, it somehow made me feel less self-conscious about my body. It seems contradictory, but if there’s no possibility of hiding anything, you generally just come to terms with your body and have a good time.

It’s been bikinis all the way ever since. This may just be personal preference, but I think that pretty much every woman under the age of 35  or so would look better naked than clothed, and would also look better in a bikini than in a one-piece.

I was considering hopping off the two-piece wagon for my next one, though, if those awwwwwesome 50s-inspired suits that were mostly very expensive last spring came down in price a bit. Like here, at modcloth:

But then…

Sadly, I came across this, from Cuche Bikinis (…Cuche? Really?) in Vancouver (…Vancouver? Really?), and now I keeping switching back and forth. Damn, people, I can’t make up my mind because it’s so hot and I can’t go cool off because I can’t make up my mind…