Feeling: dehydrated
Listening to: Hoobastank - The Reason
Reading/Watching: Singles, Diner, French Kiss, and Roman Holiday. It's been a couch day.

I've discovered that the number of SPF on one's sunscreen bottle should be divided by the number of hours one spends in the sun.

So SPF 45 divided by 5 hours = SPF 9. Divide in half for water exposure, and you have 4 1/2. This is why I am Katie the Human Potato Chip today, because of five hours on/in the river yesterday.

Sunburn makes a girl intensely aware of her body, because of that annoying fact that her body is encased in skin, and at the moment, the skin is not so happy. Every twitch, every movement of feet, legs, arms, shoulders, all have that dry, feverish glow, where I'll stand up too quickly or scratch at an itch and think, "Wow, I really shouldn't have done that."

I also realized I have some weird mannerisms, like flinging my hands outward to make a point, then slapping them down onto my thighs, quite hard. The faces I made the first few times I did this were quite comical, I'm told. Bri definitely thought it was hilarious, although she reminded me after each instance, "Stop doing that."

After the first four times I slapped myself full on the sunburn, I admitted it was a sickness. Fifth time, I actually managed to catch myself, rebounding my hands off the air an inch from my legs, which also elicited a laugh from my ever-so-sympathetic best friend.

I haven't been this sunburned since I was ten or twelve, and I floated three hours on a lake without sunscreen on my legs, and then the next two days were spent motionless on the couch, even turning down a chance to go to Schlitterbahn because the pain was too intense. Remember when Dad gave us that guilt trip about not wanting to go, Bear? Now I feel like I should have said, "Look, I waddle when I walk. My skin is purple, and there is no race known to man that is supposed to turn that color. Go have fun, and I'll stay here and enjoy my vat of aloe vera."

If only I'd been so glib when I was younger.

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