elements that, in combination, make a weird but good day

• I slept until I woke up this morning, rather than setting an alarm. I still didn't stay in bed forever, which is a positive thing. It was nice to come out of sleep gradually for the first time in a while.
• A couple of friends have made contributions to my johari window, which is up to 33 responses. I am enjoying this a great deal. It's been fascinating to note the different tones of response based on how long and in what context I've known someone. (To add to it, go here. If you've already filled it in for me and wish to view all responses, go here.) I'm considering using my top three responses as my new OkCupid profile's "3 Words."
• Matt and I went to see Juno last night. It was terrific: the best movie I've seen in years. Ellen Page is phenomenal, and Jason Bateman completely renewed my faith.
• I stopped at Michaels (the craft store) this evening on my way to pick up groceries, only intending to buy some gift bags. While wandering the store in search of the bags, I happened to walk through the cake decorating aisle. Once there, I recalled that one of my pans seems to have become a possession of Nick's family; I took a dessert to their house and failed to retrieve my pan before Nick gave me the big shove. Since I was in retail therapy mode anyway, I decided to replace it. Unfortunately, the (only) two 11x15" pans on the shelf were nested together so tightly that I couldn't get them loose. I took them to the register, preferring not to break more than 2 fingernails trying to pry them apart. The clerk tried, and then called a coworker. She worked on them for fifteen minutes before simply giving up. She handed me both pans and said, "Keep them both." Yay! Free pan!.
• My main goal tonight was the grocery store that I never visit because it's so far away. They're the only ones that stock my favorite frozen dinner, but it's really hit or miss as to when they'll have them. Woot--today they had them!
• The best, best, best part of the whole day: I went to the liquor store to stock up on liquids for tomorrow night's pizza-n-beer thing with G. We used to do this (sans beer, naturally) at work one evening each week, but I stopped working nights and blah blah blah. Then we moved it to my apartment, periodically, but she's so friggin' busy that it's been hard to schedule. (It also requires consideration of the next day's responsibilities, given my propensity for hangovers.) Voila, she's coming over tomorrow after work. The point? Oh, yeah: the booze. I went to a liquor store that I used to visit periodically while in law school, but that's been [gulp] 9-ish years. I'm just not a huge alcohol consumer. But I like this place, so I went, intending to get a 12-pack of something domestic. Instead, I got a fifth of Skyy vodka (plain), a 6-pack of Red Stripe, and a 6-pack of Blue Moon. I stood in line (a line of two) for 5+ minutes while the middle-aged guy in front of me dithered about which Bud he wanted. My arms were breaking. Finally, I set down the sixes and the vodka. I didn't notice at first that the clerk wasn't doing anything, that there were no beeps from the register or whatnot. I was checking out the point-of-sale options for Schnaaps {shudder}. I finally made eye contact with the clerk and realized that he was just looking at me, expectantly. I raised an eyebrow and he said, "Could I please see some ID, miss?"
  I broke into a huge grin, opened my wallet, pulled out my license, and handed it to him. Once he saw my birthdate, he smiled, too (and blushed, a circumstance that was barely discernible beneath his olive skin). As he handed it back I grinned and said, "Thank you. Very much."
  He nearly ruined the effect by ham-handedly attempting to flirt ("D'you come often to here?") but I was almost completely oblivious.
  I've been feeling old, in various ways, since the Brian debacle in November. That experience took a lot out of me, in terms of confidence and, well, happiness of course, but also, it seemed to let the air out of something that had been (however tentatively) buoyant before. I was feeling every one of my years, and even more so when considered in romantic terms.
  Today's inadvertent compliment went further than I ever would have anticipated in remedying that.