I have no idea what to title this.

I went to get rum for the party last night. Liquor stores have always been a bit daunting to me -- there is so much selection and since I like relatively little of it, I feel like if I am going to be pleased with my purchase I have to know what I am doing, and therefore that I have to find the needle in the haystack. I think that in the future I will stick to a few things I know I like or perhaps not go to liquor stores for myself at all - since I would rather have lemonade or iced tea than beer or wine.

But, all the same, what is a 21st birthday party without alcohol, so I bravely confronted my fear and stared at the rum selection - which was piddling, consisting mostly of differently sized bottles of the same rum. I selected the smaller one and a bottle of club soda, and made my way to the checkout, heart racing. I remembered the time in Binny's where I (and everyone with me) was kicked out surreptitiously, without an ID check. Of course, at that point I was under 21 so an ID check would not have been fruitful anyway. The woman at the register asked for my ID, and I gave it to her, and she typed something into a computer and asked "1986?"

I said yes.

She told me I wasn't 21 yet. I said that it was my birthday and I was fairly certain that I was 21. She called over the manager. The manager examined me, my ID, and the computer screen and then said "You typed it in wrong. This says the fifth."

The check-out lady wished me a happy birthday and I bought the rum.

Thing is, I have been looking forward to being carded for a while - if only to surprise people by the fact that I am, in fact, much older than I look. With my new haircut it's not as big a deal, but the point remains. So it was a tiny bit anticlimatic, but for my first trip to the liquor store, it was successful.