Wednesday, October 10, 2007

No Longer in that Desirable Demographic


As of Monday evening at 8:25 PM, I am no longer part of the coveted 18 - 34 year-old marketing demographic. I don't feel old. I don't think I look old, but people are increasingly referring to me as "Ma'am." I hate that. I was raised to say ma'am and sir to anyone older than I was, a very southern verbal affliction that was strictly enforced at my house. Now I hate, hate, hate it when a teenager or a 20-something-year-old says ma'am to me. Please stop.

It was a fun birthday weekend and a good birthday. Chad & I went on the Austin American Institute for Architects tour of homes. We both agreed that most of the houses were too huge, offered too much glass with too little privacy, seemed more like commercial showplaces than personal sanctuaries and that some of the houses were just plain ugly. We like our little, cozy 1952 house. Saturday night we walked around South Congress Avenue, stopping to share a yummy cupcake at Hey Cupcake. We also stopped in this new candy store called Big Top. The store was circus themed and offered all sorts of odd candy, flavored sodas, milk shakes, malts, popcorn and ice cream. I got clove candy canes and raspberry M&Ms. Chad got licorice bridge mix - ewww. On Sunday we had afternoon tea at the Four Seasons hotel. The view of Ladybird Lake was lovely and the Four Seasons lobby lounge was plush and posh. The bill was also posh. I think I can recreate the experience with a French press, fresh tea leaves and some mini dessert tarts from the Whole Foods bakery next time I want a fancy tea party.

Monday I went to lunch at Homeslice Pizza (my fave!) and went shopping for 2 hours at Emerald's. It was me-time. I loved it. I came home to find that Chad had taken off from work at 1:00. Chad cleaned the house, made my favorite ginger drink, ordered veggie Asian food (yum!) and invited some friends over. He also presented me with my gift, a comfortable reading chair in the office from IKEA. Sonic (our big, boy cat) had pooped on my old reading chair too many times. The old dish chair with the super-thick cushion was just too tempting and comfortable a place for Sonic to resist. Hopefully the new chair seems more like furniture, and Sonic will not poop on it. (He doesn't poop on any other furniture, only that old dish chair. Weird cat.) Chad put a plastic sheet over the new chair while he waited for me to get home, because he wanted to keep the cats off of it. Sonic decided that no silly, plastic sheet was going to stop him, and he found his way under to snuggle into the new chair. His newest nickname is "boy in the bubble." I think that this photo says it all. I love my new chair!

My birthday cake featured very bright, hot-pink frosting. The food dye was surely not from anything found in nature. We all had pink teeth, pink mouths and pink lips after eating it. Yep, Chad picked the color all by himself!