Skin Deep

I've never been to the Skin Deep Laser Medspa on Fair Oaks. Have you? "Skin deep laser med" doesn't sound like my style, but "spa" sounds absolutely like the thing I ought to do on a Sunday.

I remember, almost twenty years ago, taking a trip with my friend Gretchen through the central California wine country. It wasn't as fancy there as it is now, with its vineyards and tasting rooms. But we had fun, we explored, and on the way home we stopped at an Ojai spa. The setting was rustic. We drove off the highway along a winding drive to a low building among the trees. The swimming pool was empty. It seemed like no one else was there, which is entirely possible. All they had was sun, relaxation and quiet. And a couple of masseurs.

Not so here in Pasadena, where you can get Microdermabrasion and Photodynamic Acne Therapy and and "virtually painless hair removal." I'm sure all these things are lovely, but I'm realistic. They will not make me look like the models on the website, or even like the young woman I was in Ojai twenty years ago. That's fine. She was pretty enough, but she had a few things to learn.