Burn Baby, Burn
Yesterday, one of my labmates had a BBQ and her home became the scene an atrocious crime against the maintenance of healthy skin. Unfortunately I am the guilty one, having blatantly overlooked one of the cardinal rules of avoiding sunburn:Even when it is cloudy, you can still get burnt, so wear sunscreen even on cloudy days.
I woke up Sunday morning and looked outside. It was very, very overcast, almost on the verge of raining. There was not a hint of sun. My labmates BBQ was scheduled to start at noon, and by the time I had my laundry finished and my room cleaned, I was running a little bit late so I decided to forego my intended detour to the drug store to buy more powerful sunscreen and go straight to her house instead (mistake #1). I did manage to slather on a bit of SPF 15, but it would sadly prove inadequate when faced with the challenge of 3 hours of fun in the sun. It was still really cloudy as I boarded the bus, but by the time I had arrived at my destination 20 minutes later, the sky had cleared. It was also blazingly hot so I ended up not wearing my cardigan (mistake #2). I thought after an hour or so, maybe I should head inside or sit in the shade or something, but then again, it didn't feel like I had been in the sun all that long and a little bit of sun never hurt anybody, right? (mistake #3).
At about 2pm, I started to see the unmistakable symptoms of sunburn. Right on cue. Sunburns apparently start to show up 2 - 4 hours after the damage to you skin has been done. My shoulders and chest were definitely pink. I freaked out because while I don't mind my arms and legs having a little color, I'm not too terribly fond of having a really dark face/neck, especially seeing how the skin here tends to show the ravages of age and sun much more quickly than the more robust skin of the rest of our bodies. I escaped into the refuge of the house and put on my cardigan.
But alas, my belated efforts were of no help because by the time I realized what I had done, it was far too late. I now feel radioactive, giving off and an excessive number of light waves from the infra-red, visible, and UV range. It looks like I'm wearing a pale flesh colored tank top over my tomato-red body (I don't even know WHY I was wearing a tank top that day. You guys know that I almost never wear tank tops and nearly always wear tshirts. That would have saved me from my horribly encounter with the sun... Maybe the gods are conspiring against me?).
On the bright (pink) side, I don't think the burn is as bad as I had orinally thought. Last night I was positively GLOWING red. This morning, it didn't look nearly as bad. My skin is a bit tender/sore, but definitely not in too much pain and it's not blistering. All day long, I have been sneaking into the lab bathroom to reapply aloe vera in hopes that I can at least ease the healing process. I'll probably peel, but I am SO lucky that I was born with tan-able light olive skin because had I been white, blonde, and blue-eyed, I'd probably be in excruciating pain right now.
Lesson learned. Never leave home without sunscreen. Even when it's overcast.
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