ESCAPE ROUTES- Recipes for Enthusiasm

Sometimes, the best beauty treatment is getting away. These 71 ways to escape are suggestions from our friends who know that doesn't always mean a trip to Tahiti.

Buy a wig. Red or any color but your own.

Borrow a child. Go to a puppet show.

Relax in a church during an afternoon organ concert or choir practice session.

BAKE SOME BREAD

Catalogue the album of family pictures.

Try on safari outfits for a ( trip (fictional) to a coffee farm in Brazil.

Shop for jewelry. At any price, old or new.

Feed your tape recorder (ipod)Attend an auction and bid at least once.

Eat at an exotic restaurant with Argenitine, Armenian or Brazilian cuisine.

Sign up for private exercise classes.

Spend time in a pet shop--buy a puppy.

CALL SOMEONE ABROAD.

Learn to put on individual false eyelashes.

Re pot all the plants in your house.

LEARN TO SKY-DIVE (I did that three times, remember)

iNDEX YOUR LIBRARY.

Hand roll hems on Liberty of London silk to make scarves. Give as gifts on odd Fridays.

Put on a color rinse after a shampoo--gives your hair a glow, your spirits a lift.

Rummage through an ancient attic or cellar--rediscover battered toys, now-dowdy clothes. Why didn't you throw them away?

READ COOK BOOKS

Put aside a certain sum ($20-$50) and go out and buy something you don't really need, just because.

Go skiing--or practice skiing movements.

Make patchwork placemats or pillows.

Take a nude "air bath" in front of an open window or balcony door at twilight. Breathe in the wind, let your thoughts fly.

Try a wild new eye make-up in private.

Plant a tree.

Fast for one day.

Cook a very complicated recipe--it must be difficult and preferably from another culture -- Indian, Chinese, Balinese.

Sign up for a language course -- the one you've been meaning to learn all along.

REARRANGE FURNITURE.

Get a body massage--from an expert, a lover, a friend.

Pull out all the fabric pieces collected through the years and sew up something to wear in the evening.

READ YOUR OLD LOVE LETTERS.

Memorize Dante's Canto III in the original

Take a dog (yours or on loan and the larger the better) on a long, long walk. Explore places you've never been before.

Look at apartments for rent or houses for sale (not that you're going to buy).

Design a complete wardrobe for a round-the-world six month trip at sea.

Take a tape recorder, portable, and "interview" the man on the street (or beach , or park or wherever) about his opinions on a non-existent political party you've just dreamed up, kit-flying, anything, etc.

TRY ON HATS

Window-shop in an unexplored area.

Go to a no-message movie. Alone.

Paint--canvas, bathroom, closet.

Write a short, science fiction story.

Try on sable coats.

Take a sauna, then have your hair done.

Invent a new cocktail--keep tasting until it passes even your high standards.

Ride in a helicopter.

Read Proust in French.

Browse a bookstore.

Reread Zane Grey.

Have a wind tasting party.

Write the Times a letter. It might even be published!

Steal one hour. Clean your face. Then cream it. Steam it for ten minutes over a bowl of boiled water filled with rosemary and thyme. Soak in a full, scented, warm tub--half hour. Splash two minutes under a cold shower. Massage all over with body lotion. Spray on a favorite fragrance. Wow!

Get some friends together and read one of Shakespeare's plays.

GO ON A TV QUIZ PROGRAM.

Commune with the gorillas at the zoo.

Close your eyes and imagine people walking on a rainbow.

Give a dinner party at the drop of a hat.

Go to a travel agent. Plan a trip to Pango-Pango or Togo-Togo or Lapland. (If you win next month's lottery, you'll have all the sticky details worked out ahead.)

Write letters to everyone you've neglected.

Get a pedicure or manicure.

Plan the perfect crime!

WRITE POETRY.

Make chutney, pickle relish or jam.

Design a plan for a dream house.

Ride to the last bus stop.

Kiss everyone in sight.