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To bikini or not to bikini -- that is the question

The Miss America Pageant calls its swimsuit competition "physical fitness in a swimsuit." What it really is -- with all due respect from a true Miss America fan -- is the same thing as the Columbia County Fair's livestock shows. The contestants are being judged by how well they conform to breed standards. Someday, a Miss America judge will forget it's not a dairy show, and admit that he picked the contestant with the most perpendicular udders.
All this is by way of marking a potential milestone: At age 60, I'm thinking of getting a bikini.
My husband and I plan a return this summer to the place where my physical journey started -- Phoenix, Arizona. We're even going back to the same resort, where I spent most of our last Phoenix vacation in the hotel suite because I couldn't walk.
This resort has an outstanding water park. And while I prefer a tank suit for serious workouts in the warm-water or lap pool, I'm thinking a bikini might be fun for vacation.
I hold no illusions that I could rock a bikini anywhere near as well as the reigning Miss America, North Dakota's Cara Mund.  When a person loses a lot of weight, a lot of the old skin stays behind, unless it's surgically removed. A bikini would show my not-quite-tight belly and (as my tank suits also show) legs with visible muscles alongside overhanging flesh. But I'm proud of my body. Even with its fanny overhang, abs more like a 1-gallon milk bag than a 6-pack and a very visible surgical scar on my left leg. What I'd show in my swimsuit, whether it's one piece or two, is physical fitness in the truest sense of the word.
Now, for the first photo of the new blog. This is my "Nordic pink" X-back swimsuit. It's my suit of choice for water workouts.

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