We’re back from our trek up to visit the in-laws in Minnesota. All in all, it was a good visit: the weather was nice, the food was fine, and even my fibromyalgia seemed to cooperate. The only bad part was my failure to anticipate just how warm it would be up North this summer. Usually when we go up there it’s a good 20 degrees cooler than here in Kansas. This year, however, the summer temps are only just now breaking 90 degrees here, so I counted on much cooler temps at the lake.

Silly me.

By our third day there I’m sure my in-laws began to wonder why I kept wearing the same pair of shorts day in and day out. It’s just so hard to find shorts that fit in the seat without binding at the waist, or which fit at the waist without bunching up between my legs every time I take a step. So far, despite many trips to the mall, I’ve only found one pair that I like.

Fortunately, I remembered to pack all three of my favorite sunglasses. This prompted no end of teasing from my husband who noted that I have more womens sunglasses than I do shorts. What can I say? Sunglasses are a whole lot easier to buy, especially online, and they make such great fashion accessories I just can’t settle on one pair.

My very favorites are my retro-looking cat’s eye sunglasses. When you’ve got a round face like mine it’s important to balance that out by picking frames with angles. (Angular faced gals, on the other hand, should go for round styles while those of you with oval faces are lucky and can pull off any frame style.) My husband can’t stand them, but then he still likes those 1980s style multi-colored reflective sunglasses that make him look like a fly.

Unfortunately, I lost my favorite pair of sunglasses in the lake and wasn’t about to try diving for them. They’re only $15 after all, which is peanuts compared to the cost of a bathing suit (something else I don’t own). So I wound up spending the rest of the week swapping between my Blues Brother-style black sunglasses and my Chanel-style shield shades. The only problem was that I kept forgetting which pair I was wearing and, while the Raybans work great at holding my hair out of my eyes, the Chanel knockoffs have a fitted nose bridge that kept ripping my bangs out every time I pushed them to the top of my head. And, meanwhile, the two pairs are shaped very differently, something which led to some freakish tan lines on my face.

But all of that pales in comparison to the most important thing about our trip: I made it through a week at the lake in Minnesota without one single mosquito bite. Not one! Maybe the funky shorts chased them away?

Tags: bathing suit, fashion accessories, fibromyalgia, summer temps, womens sunglasses