UPF Clothing and Lollapalooza, baby!

At the end of the week it's finally time for Lollapalooza. It's hard for me imagine that I'm already walking well enough to be able to go to Lollapalooza, because it's only been three weeks since my surgery and we walk quite a few miles at the festival in Chicago, but I think I'm going to be okay.

I'll be bringing my leg brace to the festival and I qualify for an accessible wristband which will help me find places to sit (it will be HARD for me to sit down in the grass) and accessible restrooms, but all-in-all I don't think I'll be needing too many accomodations and I'm hoping not to use them unless really necessary. I'm ready to get back to my "normal" life as much as possible!

The main thing that I've been obsessing about as I prepare for this festival is the amount of sun exposure I'm sure to receive while I'm there. The weather gods seem to be with us this year, and the high temperature for each of the three days will only be seventy-five. That is amazingly good news, as we are used to enduring temps in the nineties. Good temperatures aside, there's still plenty of sun in my future over the weekend.

My Lollapalooza buddy and I headed out to REI to look at UPF clothing this evening. I've finally decided that sunscreen just isn't going to cut it for this kind of exposure and I should be wearing long sleeve and UPF protection. I'm hopeful that these items will help reduce my anxiety about being in the sun.

I bought a long-sleeved shirt and a (cute) hat and was truly startled by how expensive these items were. They cost me almost $100!  What a shame. With all the recent news about the Surgeon General's Call To Action about melanoma and news about the US House of Representatives passing the Sunscreen Innovation Act this week, maybe we will see some changes in the availability of high quality, lower cost sun protection. We can hope!

Looking forward to three days in the sun and lots of live music (and crowds) later on this week. Bring it.