Pierce: Shopping for swimsuits re-enacts 'Cathy' cartoon

I did something last week that I haven't done since 1986: I shopped for a swimsuit.

I have always held firmly to the belief that women with plus-size behinds do not need to advertise that fact in a swimsuit. Unless your beach buddy is Stevie Wonder, your size is already apparent to everyone sharing the sun and sand with you.

Shorts and tank tops have served me just fine for 24 years.

But there I was in a dressing room, living out a "Cathy" comic strip as I tried one suit after another. ACK! UGH! Eye rolling. Bangs sticking up after running my hands through my hair in frustration.

And apparently the saleslady had put me in a dressing room with one of those fun-house mirrors - my legs appeared much shorter and chubbier than I believed my height merited.

I finally found a two-piece suit that did the best it could with what it had to cover.

As I turned in front of the three-way mirror, I thought about the number of times my beach buddies and I have looked at each other and rolled our eyes over some woman jiggling down the beach in a suit she had no business wearing.

"What was she thinking?" one of us would ask.

"She's old enough to know better," the others agreed.

I just couldn't go there.

Twenty pounds lost on this Shape We're In project isn't enough to uncover that much skin. A lot more walking was needed first, I decided.

I hung the suits back on the rack and walked out of the store.

Sunbathers on the beaches of the Florida Panhandle are spared for another summer.

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