When the Wrinkle Cure Stops Curing

plus, another good reason to lift weights?

Welcome readers, old and new!

One of you recently asked me to suggest an eyeliner that wouldn’t smudge, which reminded me of my favorite pencil liners. They’re old school and decidedly un-fancy, but they come in a range of flattering shades, glide on smoothly, and stay put. At $4 a pop, they’re also super inexpensive. I usually wear the seafoam green.

Please don’t forget to hit the ❤️ button to let us know you’re happy to be here. And if you’ve got a beauty-related question, I’m listening!

🌴 🌴 🌴

As I write this, wildfires on the island of Maui are just under control. But as you must already know, the devastation is enormous. You can find a way to support recovery efforts here. And read this if you’re interested in a moving perspective on life in Hawaii.

For my final summer family vacation story, here’s a tale of two olds, my son’s dad and me, renting a vehicle—a Jeep the size of a church van—for a road trip adventure on Oahu.

Aside from the van’s unwieldy proportions (elegantly maneuvered by not me thank god), our only issue was figuring out how to get the GPS to work, so we could find our way across the freeway in Waikiki to pick up our son and his family staying at a nearby resort. After several failed attempts and copious cursing, we not only inaugurated the GPS, but also figured out how to shift the vehicle out of 🅿️.

Golden. We were golden.

Unfortunately—maybe you saw that coming—the GPS’s reflexes were slower than ours, so it sometimes suggested we make a turn just as we passed the turnoff. No matter. We got lost, we got found, we showed up, unbelievably, on time. I wish our son could’ve shared pride in our accomplishment. He was solicitous at first (good job, guys!) but quickly resumed his skeptical estimation of our competence.

“The car seat?” he asked. “Where’s the car seat?”

Where was the car seat? It’s illegal to travel with a small child in Hawaii without one. And though a car seat had been requested, it had also been forgotten.

Fast forward to the end: We picked up a car seat at a nearby Hertz, the kids loaded up the van as if they were moving house, and we were off.

For approximately six hours, my five-year-old granddaughter, as usual, never stopped talking and I, as usual, was completely entranced. We saw huge turtles bathing in the sand; we saw surfers skimming the waves; we ate coconut shrimp from a truck and slurped shaved ice. We danced with the sea breezes. No, we didn’t, but we were merry and gay as windchimes.

I wonder if I lived in such magnificent surroundings permanently, would I one day become immune to it? That seems impossible. But so it also seems impossible to a reader who thinks she may have become immune to a common aesthetic treatment.

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