Success!

You know that moment when you're at a pool, the moment where you've gone as far as you can go while wearing clothes or a towel, and it's time to shed the outer layer and make a break for the water?  Part of you wants to drop the towel and sprint for the partial covering of  water, but the other part of you knows that running causes jiggle, and you're hit with that horrible catch-22:  If you run, people will get to see you for a shorter amount of time, but what they see will be much, much worse.  If you walk slowly, you can keep additional movement to a minimum, but allow everyone a nice long view of your thunder-thighs.  Anyway, this is the moment I keep in mind when trying on bathing suits.  Will this suit reduce or enhance the pain of that moment?  How many body parts will my hands need to obscure while wearing this suit?  If the water's cold, will the suit make me want to risk hypothermia just to hide my exposed backside?  These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.

Anyway, it took hours, and a couple of stores, and shopping in a way where it was in no way fun for me at all, but success has been had, and I am now the owner of a shiny new bathing suit!

I'm not going to show you a picture of me trying on my new suit, I know, you're disappointed, but life is about overcoming disappointment, so I'm sure you'll be okay.  However, here it is on a model:

Here is a complaint I have.  I feel comfortable saying now that I am a fully confirmed size 6.  Different brands, different stores, size 6 on the snug side, but size 8 is rather loose.  Oh, and I can now fit in my size 4 capris that I bought in college and haven't been able to wear in 6 years.  I really don't know why I still have them, but that's another issue. But there it is.  I said it, I'll stand behind it.  I am now a size 6.

Why is it, then, that for the most part, I need a size 10 or large bathing suit bottom???  Technically, the bottom is on the looser side, but the medium felt like I was trying to squeeze myself into sausage tubing and it wasn't going well.  I don't think this is fair.  It seems bathing suits in general are surprised by the girth of my thighs in a way that jeans are not.  Or maybe I'm just more comfortable if the suit is a little big rather than a little small.  Either way.  I'm a small/medium top and a medium/large bottom.

Back to my purchase:  It definitely isn't what I think of when I think "bathing suit".  It's loose, lots of material, and honestly, the top feels completely comfortable as a shirt.  I chose this one because I decided that, if society is going more conservative bathing suit wise, I should run with that.  And also, I really feel comfortable in this suit. I feel about as not-self conscious as I have ever felt while wearing swimwear.  Hopefully this will significantly minimize the discomfort of that most terrifying of all bathing suit moments.  Now if only I can remember to keep my legs fake tanned and shaved, I may survive this swimsuit season!!