Grocery shopping saved me today. I took a solo trip while Dan was organizing the garage.

Walking around King Soopers — just Cincinnati’s Kroger chain under another name — was incredibly cathartic. Everything was where it should be, laid out exactly like my hometown store.

And then there’s retail therapy, of course. Dan and I hit King Soopers yesterday for basics — eggs, milk, cans of stewed tomatoes — but today I bought Tonight Dough, a pretty dish towel, and a bouquet of seasonal flowers. That last one is a trick straight from my mom’s playbook — a $7.99 investment in a week’s worth of cheer.

On the way to the store I realized that I may never have even driven a car in Colorado before today. Dan always drives. Granted, King Soopers is mere blocks from my house — when I don’t have gallons of distilled water to buy, I’ll walk — but today the solo drive felt liberating.

It’s the little things.