Yesterday, I turned the ripe old age of 35. I have to say that this is the first birthday that has ever actually made me feel old. I have a lot for friends that freaked out over 30, which didn’t bother me, and of course you always hear about 40 being a big deal for people. For some reason 35 seems like the big deal to me. I think there are a number of reasons for it. First it puts me in a whole new demographic. Pretty much any time you are asked to give your age for something and age ranges are provided for your response 35 kicks you up into a new age bracket. I no longer reside in that desirable 18-34 age bracket all the marketers are trying to cater to. Also, even though I don’t plan on having kids if I did my age alone would put me into the high risk pregnancy category. I guess that biological clock is still sounding in there ticking its way closer and closer to the death of my ability to reproduce even if I am ignoring it.

Anyway, enough of that. I thought this was a blog about happy things. My actual birthday mostly seemed to revolve around eating. I made plans to try out two restaurants in Baltimore that have been on list of places to try for awhile. For lunch I met my friends Alison and Tracie (plus baby Abby) at Ten Ten. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to eat here. I remember it getting rave reviews when it opened and finding it hard to get in at first, but that has certainly calmed down so I’m not sure why it took me this long to eat there. I’ve certainly been missing out in all that time because the food was delicious. The waiter having overheard mention of it being my birthday even brought me a piece of cake with a birthday candle in it. I certainly don’t expect restaurants to do things like that, but appreciate it. Since I usually go out somewhere for my birthday and don’t have a party it’s been awhile since I’ve had an actual birthday cake. I would have to make it myself anyway, so it was nice to be able to blow out a candle and celebrate for a change. I’ll definitely be back to try dinner there soon.

After lunch Alison treated me to a pedicure. I’m usually pretty boring with my nail polish color choices sticking with your reds, pinks, maroons. I decided to go with something different this time and chose a midnight blue color, which I believe was called Road House Blues. I’m quite pleased with the results.

For dinner my husband and I went out to Wit & Wisdom, which is the restaurant inside the fairly new Four Seasons hotel in Baltimore. The food was also delicious, but I for some reason did not leave with the same good feelings I had about Ten Ten. First, I think my expectations were higher given the kind of clientele the restaurant generally caters to. As I said the food was delicious so I can’t complain about that. Though I do always question restaurants in this day and age who don’t put at least one token vegetarian option on their menu. My husband who is a vegetarian had to cobble together a dinner made of items off their sides menu. They do list that you can order 3 sides together for a specific price, but it still doesn’t feel like ordering an entree. I knew this going in having looked at the menu online to make sure he could eat something, but it still irks me a little. Mostly I think that it was some small service missteps that left me feeling a little underwhelmed with our experience. I think our waiter maybe had one more table than he should have because although I saw him running around all night and it wasn’t as if he was sitting around or not doing his job, it felt like service was often slow. In a restaurant where the head waiters are required to dress in suits I tend to expect the service to be impeccable, which this wasn’t. It wasn’t awful or even something I would normally complain about except for the fact that they didn’t live up to what I would expect from this kind of restaurant and  also paled in quick comparison to the meal I had eaten at Ten Ten just hours before. I would be willing to go back though, and would love to be able to eat out on their new patio on a night that it isn’t raining like it was last night. I will also give them kudos for having some non-alcoholic “cocktails” on their menu. As someone who can’t drink and doesn’t like soda, my options for drinks when I go out are usually limited to water. Thus I appreciate it when restaurants offer me something more exciting to drink. More restaurants should do this. It would be in their best interest as Wit & Wisdom got an extra $8 out of me that they wouldn’t have if their drink menu was all alcoholic drinks plus soda.

The rest of my day in between food outings was spent finishing up season 2 of Scandal, which I will talk about in a future post because I have questions. I’ll get to that sometime soon. You Scandal watching people, be on the look out.