Now that it’s officially summer the list of outdoor events lined up for the coming weekends is growing by the day, at least here in Baltimore. After a winter like this past one it’s nice to finally walk outside without a thousand layers of clothing. When I look around and see women in their short shorts and summer dresses I gotta admit, I get a tad bit jealous. I look at my milk chocolate skin and think, you are designed for this! Your skin can take it. And it’s true, I don’t burn. My skin I can take it, but Lupus can’t. I want to wear some daisy dukes and not give a %$@#, but I have to care. Doesn’t make it suck any less but it could be worse.

This past Saturday I went to a festival in Annapolis which was really fun. Wine and art, what’s not to love? I wore a long maxi dress that was wasn’t really form-fitting so it kept me somewhat cool. I then tied a decorative scarf across the cleavage area to reduce the amount of skin I could potentially show. I topped it off with some funky wedges, a denim jacket, and a large brimmed hat. This look is basically my summer uniform. Maxi dresses which hit the floor cover practically every inch of your body and what isn’t covered you can fix with a light jacket or cardigan. It may have been a bit too warm for the denim but I managed to make it the entire day without taking it off–which, believe it or not, made me really happy!

While in line for one of the tastings I looked up at the sky and was like “hmm, it’s kinda hot!” There was a woman next to us and she looked at me as if to say “just take off the jacket,” so I responded quite honestly (to her imaginary question, mind you). “I would take off my jacket but I have Lupus and the sun = no bueno for me.” She quickly explained how she knew all about the sun as her mom has Lupus and literally passes out whenever she’s in the sun. What the what! We chatted for a bit and turns out her mom’s sun blackouts is the only reason a Lupus diagnosis exists. Crazy, huh?!

I guess in retrospect, having to wear my jacket wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. At least I could be outside enjoying the event and my friends. Sometimes you just have to count your blessings.

P.S. Despite my love of what I wore, I realized (after the fact) that I only took one group pic and don’t have any real proof of the aforementioned outfit. The picture above is the dress I wore but taken a week or so earlier while on vacation. I will need to capture this lovely sun protecting outfit soon for you all. If, that is, you want to see it. haha.