What my headline really should say — “Spend all day at the beach, miss your lower back when you’re reapplying sunscreen, and regret it for the rest of the weekend.”

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s what happened.

Normally, the water at my cottage isn’t fully swimmable until late July. You can go in earlier in the month, but it often requires a lot of bravery and a high tolerance for cold. On Saturday, however, the water was absolutely gorgeous. It takes me awhile to get in and dive under, but the water was so nice that I walked right in, raft in hand. I get really hot lying out on the sand, so my plan was to lay on the raft and tan while in the water. Genius, right?

The thing is, I spent a ton of time at the beach last weekend and got a pretty nasty sunburn on my chest and stomach. The burn faded into a tan and didn’t peel, but I still wanted to be careful. So I sprayed myself down with SPF 30, spent the majority of the day lying on my stomach, and reapplied about halfway through the day. One problem: it was breezy out when I put on my second coat of sunscreen. Even still, I sprayed multiple times, sure I hit every spot.

I was so, so wrong.

(Yes, it is as painful as it looks.)

Needless to say, my perfect day ruined my evening. Instead of staying up and hanging out on our porch, like I usually do, I applied a very thick layer of aloe vera and spent the night lying on my stomach in bed. I think I went to sleep around 10:00. It was absolutely ridiculous.

Two days later, it still hurts. Driving to work this morning was a pain (literally–the lower left side of my back is the worst spot, and I grimaced each time I put in the clutch to shift) and it hurt to wear my backpack at camp. Once I get this post published, I’m applying my zillionth layer of aloe and lotion. I feel like a gigantic sticky blob.

Lesson learned: spray-on sunscreen is not recommended in breezy weather (well, duh) … and when I’m at the beach next weekend, I’m putting on sunscreen every hour, on the hour.