Do you all remember the whole “Wear Sunscreen” speech? It was written by a Chicago Trib columnist in the mid 90s and then Baz Luhrmann put it to a song? The whole thing is here if you need a refresher. Well, it turns out that this wasn’t just a neat little tag line–you really should wear sunscreen. Even when you don’t think you need to.
I’ve learned this lesson more than once (no, I didn’t learn the first time). But as I was flipping through old photos this evening, I came across the worst sunburn I ever had….and I’m going to tell you all about it! To start us off, here’s what I normally look like, just in case you’ve forgotten:
And this is precisely what I looked like one early morning in Spring 2007, well my face anyway. It was a great day–I joined my hubby at a Naval Air Show, where I helped him set up a booth, and then spent the day watching airplanes fly around. We saw old WW II planes, an F-22, and the Air Force Thunderbirds (the Airforce’s version of the Blue Angels). Early in the morning, my hubby asked me if I’d like some sunscreen, reminding me that even though it was cloudy, I could still burn. As it was pretty chilly out, I was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, so I wasn’t too worried. I politely declined the sunscreen. Well, it turns out, that when you spend a whole day looking up at the sky, you should really wear some sunscreen. And here’s why:
Yeah. Pretty awful, right? And that’s me after healing for a week and a half! You can imagine how bad I was at first! Of course, I had sunglasses on during the air show, so despite the fact that I was with a group of people all day, no on really seemed to notice that I was burning. It wasn’t until we got in the car to go home that my hubby said, “Oh, I think you burnt a little bit.” By the time I got home, my face was sort of damp from the blisters forming on my face. Seriously. Worst of all, on Monday, I had to go to work like that! No makeup, no sunglasses to mask the raccoon eyes–It was awful! Really awful.
The moral of this story is…wear sunscreen. Even when it’s cold and cloudy. Or you may end up looking like this!
