Hot Mess

04Jan12

This is the only way to describe the past few days. Sometimes, after you’ve had a long and sedentary winter, and you suddenly find yourself on a sunny island getaway, chances are that you get sunburnt. Your skin turns red and blotchy and it hurts the most when you’re tossing and turning in bed, trying desperately to sleep. Then, it starts to peel off. Little patches at a time, one thin layer after another. You try and prevent it, put oils and creams and rub ice all over. It’s useless. Then, one day, you give in and start peeling it off with your own fingernails. Pulling, scratching, rubbing off the dead skin. Then, it becomes an obsession. Every peeling surface must be scratched off, every hanging white layer pulled away. Then comes a point when you start to enjoy it. You peel and peel and hope and pray that the dead skin never stops coming. That’s where I am right now. And, just to clarify, the dead skin is a metaphor.